Polly Purvis OBE

Polly Purvis graduated from Newcastle University with a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture & Food Marketing in 1975. She would go on to start her career at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Polly would eventually join ScotlandIS, the membership body and cluster management organisation for the digital technologies industry, when it was set up in 2000.

She has been CEO of the organisation for the last six years, and plans to retire from the position later this year, having spearheaded initiatives looking to tackle the skills shortage and close the gender gap in the sector.

Polly helped establish digital skills academy CodeClan in 2015, which now produces hundreds of technically skilled graduated each year at its campuses in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. She played an important part in the formation of the Digital Xtra Fund, a charity which aims to ensure that young people across Scotland have the chance to develop the skills needed to succeed in the digital age, regardless of where they are from or their economic background.

In 2017, Polly was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list. Latst year, she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scotland Women in Technology Awards.

Polly also represents ScotlandIS on the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal Regional Enterprise Council, the Converge Challenge Strategic Advisory Board, the Scotland CAN DO Business Innovation Forum, the ICT & Digital Technologies Skills Group and the ONE Digital & Entrepreneurship Board.