Speaker Feature - Rowena Innocent

Ahead of our in-person event "The Retention Opportunity: how can we retain women in tech" at Huboo in Bristol, we had a chance to speak with one of our speakers, Rowena Innocent, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Ultraleap.

A bit of background, who are you, what do you do and where do you work?

I'm Senior Vice President of Engineering at Ultraleap, a tech scale-up based in Bristol. I'm also a mum and live with my family near Worcester. I work two days a week in Bristol and the rest of the week from home. 

I studied Physics with Astrophysics at university, and I’ve worked in science and engineering for 30 years in various sized companies including General Electric and Spectris plc. 

Why is it so important for everyone to keep the topic of diversity in tech at the top of the agenda?

The most urgent answer to this question is the talent pipeline. We have such a leaky pipeline in STEM that there are only a small fraction of women applying for tech jobs so we are missing out on a load of potential talent. To make matters worse a lot of women are leaving STEM careers so the problem persists in industry.

The other, less transparent problem is the lack of diversity of thought in research and development. 

These two feed off each other - biased products, industries and academia are most attractive to those that fit the bias thus ensuring the bias remains.

What are you most looking forward to about the MotherBoard event?

I’m looking forward to hearing from others on the panel and the audience and sharing ideas and experiences.