Posted on November 2, 2012
IT entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley, 79, founded Xansa, a global software company that brought her wealth of £150m, much of which she has given away. Shirley arrived in England in 1939 at the age of five as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee. Adopted by a middle-aged couple, she grew up in the Midlands and on the Welsh border. At 18 she joined the Scientific Civil Service for eight years, and studied for a mathematics degree at night school. Financial Times