Sheree Atcheson (born 28 February 1991) is a Sri Lankan-born Northern Irish computer scientist and Group Vice-President of Diversity & Inclusion a
Valtech
She previously has held roles such as Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a
Peakon
Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Monzo and Consulting Inclusion Lead at Deloitte. Atcheson has been recognised by '' Computer Weekly'' as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech. She is the Global Ambassador for

Women Who Code Women Who Code (WWCode) is an international non-profit organization that provides services for women pursuing technology careers and a job board for companies seeking coding professionals. The company aims to provide an avenue into the technolo ...

Early life and education

Atcheson was born in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. At three weeks old, Atcheson was adopted by a Roman Catholic family in County Tyrone Northern Ireland United Kingdom, where she attended St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon. As a child she played computer games with her brother and she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in technology. Her first job was working at the counter at her local pharmacy. She decided to study computer science at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

. As an undergraduate student, only one in ten of her classmates were women, and Atcheson has worked since then to address this imbalance.

Career

After graduating, Atcheson joined

Kainos Kainos Group plc (commonly referred to simply as Kainos or Kainos Software) is a software company headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland that develops information technology for businesses and organisations. It is listed on the London Stock ...

as a software engineer before joining SR Laboratories. In 2016 Atcheson joined Deloitte, where she worked as a business consultant for strategy and architecture. She was eventually promoted lead for inclusion, and helped to design and implement the Deloitte Inclusion Strategy. At Deloitte, Atcheson developed and led the Consulting practice Inclusion strategy. In 2019 she was appointed Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Monzo. and left this role in June 2020. In August 2020, she was appointed as Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a
Peakon
She has written for '' Forbes'' and '' The Guardian''. and been featured in the '' Evening Standard'', BBC Make It Super Assembly and ''Positive News''.

Advocacy

Atcheson was involved with establishing United Kingdom expansion of

. Since launching in 2013, Atcheson has taken their membership to over 8,000 members, over 1,000 of which belong to the Belfast branch. She serves as their Global Ambassador. Atcheson established "I am Lanka", a project set up to champion role models from

. "I am Lanka" began when Atcheson was searching for her birth mother, receiving thousands of messages from Sri Lankan people revealing that she had inspired them to share their stories. She delivered a keynote lecture at the 2018 ''InspireFest''.

Awards and honours

Atcheson was selected by ''Computer Weekly'' as one of the Most Influential Women in UK tech. She was selected by ''WeAreTheCity'' as one of the United Kingdom's Rising Stars. In 2019 she was awarded

Graduate of the Year. and was listed as one of the ''Financial Times'' Top 100 BAME Leaders influencing the Tech sector. Whilst at Deloitte, she won the Women in Tech Employer of the Year Award in the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2019.

Personal life

Atcheson was married to Sean McCrory on 4 June 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atcheson, Sheree 1991 births Living people Women computer scientists from Northern Ireland Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Irish people of Sri Lankan descent People educated at St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon Computer scientists from Northern Ireland Scientists from County Tyrone