It’s all change at Girl Geek Scotland!

Though we’ve spoken to a lot with our community over the last few months and shared information about our plans, we’re delighted, and sad, to be at a pivotal point in the future of Girl Geek Scotland: having been honoured to have been nominated for the award of Diversity Champion at last weeks Scottish Tech Startup awards, we‘re now formally announcing that Morna Simpson is standing down from her position leading Girl Geek Scotland, and a new Leadership team comprising of Anne-Marie Scott, Gail Logan and Sam Rhynas has been formed.

Morna has been the driving force of Girl Geek Scotland over the last ten years, and the new leadership team are excited to take it forward. Compared to what was there ten years ago, there is a very different environment in the tech community, but still many challenges remain and some new ones have emerged. We know Girl Geek Scotland has a key place there to continue to support our network & community of those working and studying in the technical and related sectors in Scotland.

We have been delighted by the enthusiasm we’ve had from business and individuals alike over the past few months as we have looked to stengthen our ties with our community, and look forward to speaking to more of you as we kick off our program of events early next year. Our volunteers are a fantastic team, and working with them and our partners, we aim to continue to empower and enable women to have amazing careers in the tech sector.

Please follow us here to keep up to date with what’s happening, and to get to know our new leadership team, and our other volunteers, a little better. We wish Morna much success with future ventures, and leave you with her own words…

“This November marks the 10 year anniversary of founding the Girl
Geek Scotland community.

The first official Girl Geek Scotland meeting happened in November 2008 – and we had our first public event in early 2009. It had, of course, taken a good 6 months of work building networks and relationships – work that started in June that year.

It has always been a work of passion – not a business – but the result
of a lot of effort from volunteers, partners and friends working after
hours while managing day jobs to pay the rent.

When I started I thought of it as a 40th Birthday present to myself.
It was an opportunity to contribute to the future of women in
technology. We have had a lot of highs – amazing guests and
unbelievable support from the community.

Now as I am coming to my 50th Birthday I have a different gift to
myself. That is handing Girl Geek Scotland over to a new fantastic
leadership team who I trust completely to take Girl Geek Scotland
to the next level: Anne-Marie Scott, Gail Logan and Samantha
Rhynas.

They are three amazing women with the skills, knowledge and
network to make great things happen… and I know they will give
the right amount of support and freedom to volunteers as well as
the friends in business who have supported us over the years.

I will be stepping down with immediate effect to make sure that I
don’t get in their way!”