Grace O'Rourke Veitch

Vice president for EMEA channels at RES Software

Career history: Country manager at Citrix Systems; CEO of Indigo Systems; partner lead for SMS&P at Microsoft

Measure of influence: Manages 900 partners across EMEA

Activities to advance women in the channel: Regular speaker at schools and mentors other women in businesses.

How significant an issue do you see the lack of women in the UK IT channel?

It is much better then it was when I started in 1993, but thanks to good role models in the industry and better understanding there are more women in the room now when I meet partners.

Unfortunately though it still has a long way to go and prejudice still exists. There is also a perception that to get into technology for example you have to be a programmer or have a degree in computer science.