International Women's Day Profile: Joanna Smith

In honour of International Women’s Day, we’ve asked some of our #VCWomen to share a few facts about themselves and tell us about the women they find inspirational in their lives.

The theme this year for International Women's Day is #BalanceforBetter a call to action for accelerating gender balance in business, politics, media coverage and wealth. At Virtual College we are proud of the fact that we have a balanced workforce! 

We want to challenge stereotypes and break barriers, we believe individuals should be able to choose any career they wish to regardless of their gender.

Meet Joanna Smith, our Chief Technical Officer who heads up our technical team. 

What is your name?

Joanna Smith – but most people call me Jo, unless it’s my mum or I’m in trouble

What is your role at Virtual College?

I am the Chief Technology Officer – CTO is less of a mouthful

What do you enjoy the most about working at Virtual College?

The people and the challenges. Lots to do to keep me busy whilst hopefully being able to make a positive impact on the business and its learners. Working with great people who are nice and often fun to work with and are also driven to make the business succeed, always a great combination.

Outside of Virtual College, what are your interests/passions? 

I walk the dog and am a bit of an adrenaline junkie – going zip lining in a couple of weeks and got bungee jumping and a Segway lined up for later in the year with hopefully more things to follow!

What piece of technology could you not live without?

My phone – boring am I only allowed to pick one!!!!

Which women both within your industry and your personal life have been an inspiration to you?

Personal life is my mum – whatever she is confronted with she powers though regardless, at 70 she climbed Kilimanjaro and had the biggest smile ever at the summit (I was half dead and just wanted chocolate!).

Within the industry is a hard one from a tech perspective as it’s a world where there are very few women and those that I have come across have all in their own way been inspirational as they have gone into tech because they want to succeed in that area and not been hampered by thinking it’s a role for men

Give us your best piece of advice? 

Enjoy what you are doing as then you will do it well!

Read the full series of #VCWomen blogs here.