Anne-Marie Osawemwenze Ore-Ofe Imafidon (pronounced: , ; born 27 July 1990) is a British-Nigerian social entrepreneur and computer scientist. She founded and became CEO of

Stemettes Stemettes is a social enterprise which encourages girls and young women aged 5–25 to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM). Stemettes runs panel events, hackathons, the Student to Stemette mentoring programme su ...

in 2013, a social enterprise promoting women in STEM careers. In June 2022, she was announced as the 2022–2023 President of the

British Science Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chief ...

. She has worked for companies such as

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

. She has spoken at many international conferences such as the Web Summit,

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, and the Women of the World Festival. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Girl Guides and the Council of Digital Economy as well as the trustee of the Institute for the Future of Work. , she is the Chancellor (titular head) of

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

Early life and education

Imafidon was born in the UK in 1990 and grew up in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

, east London. She is the eldest of five siblings. Her father is Chris Imafidon. At the age of 11 she was the youngest girl to pass A-level computing, gaining an E. She was only 20 years old when she obtained her undergraduate master's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford.

Stemettes and entrepreneurship

Imafidon is the co-founder of Stemettes, a social initiative promoting and inspiring women in STEM. Since its founding in 2013, it has reached 60,000 young people. Imafidon decided to create Stemettes after attending a STEM workshop organized by Business in the Community. She came to understanding that there is a prevailing issue of a lack of women and non-binary people in STEM. Imafidon emphasizes the importance of having not only diversity in STEM but in all industries. Stemettes' mission is to engage, inform and connect, young women and non binary people into STEM. Stemettes' values itself as an organization that is inclusive and strives to center around the youth. She recently in 2022 launched her guidebook for women in STEM called ''She's in CTRL''.

Other work

In 2019, Imafidon hosted the ''Women Tech Charge'' podcast for The ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', where she conducted interviews with tech figures such as

Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American businessperson, who is a co-founder of Twitter, Inc. and its CEO during 2007–2008 and 2015–2021, as well as co-founder, principal executive officer and chairman of Block, Inc. (deve ...

, and other celebrities such as

Rachel Riley Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is an English television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show '' Countdown'' and its comedy spin-off ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She is a mathematics graduate. He ...

, and

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

. She is a trustee of the Institute for the Future of Work, which researches ways to improve work and working lives. She is a member of the council at the Royal College of Art and at Research England, a member of the British Library's advisory council. Anne-Marie is also a member of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports' Digital Skills Partnership Board. In September 2021, Imafidon co-hosted a special episode of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' – broadcast for the channel's ''Black to Front Day'' campaign as arithmetician. She reprised the role later that year — standing in on 60 episodes for

while she was on

maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...

, and has reprised the role on

8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of '' Countdown'', but presented in a comedy panel show format seen on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the two. ...

. In December 2022, Imafidon guest-edited BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme. In 2022, she was announced by the British Science Association as that organisation's president for the year 2022-3. In June 2023, Imafidon was interviewed by

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili (; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist and science populariser. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is a ...

for ''

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 science programme, presented by Jim Al-Khalili, in which each episode is dedicated to the biography and work of a living scientist. The programme consists of an interview between Al-Khalili and the featur ...

'' podcast, discussing diversity and equality in science, recorded at the Cheltenham Arts Festival. In the week beginning 22 January 2024, Imafidon was a contestant on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

Richard Osman Richard Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and novelist. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show ''Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows ''Two Tribes ( ...

‘s House of Games'', finishing

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

behind

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

Leo Reich Leo Reich (born 1 August 1998) is a British comedian. Early life and education Reich grew up in Islington, London, and claims he had the "most liberal upbringing ever." His father is a film producer, and his mother works in education. As a pr ...

, but ahead of broadcaster

Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently TNT Sports; Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One chat show ...

and former

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

Tanni Grey-Thompson Carys Davina Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson, ( Grey; born 26 July 1969), known as Tanni Grey-Thompson, is a Welsh life peeress, television presenter and former wheelchair racer. Athletic career Grey-Thompson started wheelchair racin ...

, having won the

Thursday Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name Th ...

episode.

Recognition

In 2017, Imafidon became an Honorary Fellow at Keble College, Oxford and was awarded an MBE for her work in being an inspiration for young women around the world in STEM. She was the 2022-2023 President of the British Science Association. In 2020 she received the Suffrage Science Award. In 2023, Imafidon was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, followed by an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Bath.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Imafidon, Anne-Marie 1990 births Living people Mental calculators English people of Nigerian descent People from Barking, London People from Walthamstow People associated with Glasgow Caledonian University Place of birth missing (living people) Members of the Order of the British Empire Honorary Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Alumni of the University of Oxford British women computer scientists British science communicators Businesspeople from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Businesspeople from the London Borough of Waltham Forest