User:Sheila.flavell

Sheila Flavell CBE is Chief Operating Officer and Executive Board Director of FTSE 250 company, FDM Group. She is also an Non Executive Director of TechUK and Chairwoman of the Institute of Coding’s Industry Advisory Board.

Sheila was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Years Honours List for services to Gender diversity in Technology and Graduate and Returners employment. She has won many awards over the years and most recently a lifetime achievement award from Scottish Women in Tech (SWIT).

Sheila’s early life was spent in Glenboig, North Lanarkshire, Scotland where she attended the local school. When she left school at 17yrs old she joined the Glasgow Police Force as a cadet then WPC 247 which later became Strathclyde Police Force. After 4 years of ‘pounding the beat’ in Glasgow she left her home in Scotland and headed off to the Middle East to take up a role as an air stewardess with Gulf Air. Sheila stayed with the airline for 12 years before returning to the UK in 1990 just before the Gulf War started and it was then she went to University of Brighton going on to graduate with an MA Marketing and then an MBA. By this time she was working with the tech ‘start up’ FDI LTD, which later became the highly acclaimed FTSE 250 company, FDM Group.

She has played an integral role in the Company’s growth story, from its initial floatation on AIM in 2005 and Management Buy Out in 2009 then re listing in 2014. Throughout her career in Tech she has focused on improving diversity in the sector, making a name for herself as one of the UK’s leading women in Tech.