686: Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, entrepreneur and venture philanthropist, reflects on her storied career as an IT pioneer. After escaping Nazi Germany and arriving in the UK as a child, she went on to hold a series of influential positions in the technology industry. Dame Stephanie describes the trials and tribulations of starting a company as a woman in the 1960s, building client relationships as a woman-led business, and adopting an ahead-of-its-time approach to workplace flexibility. She also shares her passion for autism research, her role as a “venture philanthropist,” in the space, and progress made in developing an autism treatment. Finally, Dame Stephanie discusses her memoir, Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story, and how she remains active and productive in the later years of her life.