Interview: Louise McCarthy, HSBC's former digital IT transformation director, on how to get more women into IT

Louise McCarthy was behind one of the first-ever implementations of SAP R/3. Now, she mentors the next generation of women in IT

Louise McCarthy, former global digital IT transformation director at HSBC and now business change leader, admits that her career hasn't always been easy.

"I have struggled for 16 years being the lone female at technology board level," McCarthy tells Computing. However, she's on a mission to change this for others: "I mentor females in technology to help them, given my personal experiences."

To tackle this growing challenge, McCarthy believes that change must start with education. She says: "I undertook a survey of young females to understand why such a small percentage of females go into technology. Commonly, we were seeing only four per cent of females in IT functions.

"One reason from the survey was the courses at colleges and unis were ‘computer science'. This in itself was off-putting to females."

McCarthy explains that a number of universities have now changed their course names to ‘digital innovation' and that these are attracting 50 per cent more women.

We were seeing only four per cent of females in IT functions

Her belief is that such reforms in the education system will eventually affect the business world. "We need to promote more of this," continues McCarthy, urging "other females to do more mentoring to support young females starting in their journey."

Louise's own journey started 35 years ago, before IT departments played such a major role in business. "I was running technology implementations from the business side - ie, the first-ever SAP R/3 implementation 30 years ago," she remarks.

"I then moved into business transformations and ended up in a post-chapter 11 turnaround IT function - the start of my CIO journey 16 years ago."

When it comes to her own successes in IT, McCarthy says cost and performance transparency, understanding customer needs and freeing-up cash from operational efficiencies have been key ingredients.

"My view is there are three business objectives: be more operationally efficient, improve the customer experience, and disrupt or be disrupted," she tells Computing.

"Technology innovation and digital strategy can deliver against all of these if delivered with collaboration with the business."

Since leaving HSBC, Louise has gone on to become a CXO and CFO advisor for private equity-backed fintechs and a non-executive director for a contender bank.

She continues: "I am currently working on a portfolio of clients as a non-executive director, board advisor, CFO for a fintech, and travelling around the world for both business and pleasure, presenting at a number of digital transformation conferences."

In her current roles, Louise says she promotes diversity in IT by mentoring the next generation of talent, confidence building and supporting her peers. Her biggest advice is: "Have the confidence to speak up, and try new things even if they feel uncomfortable."

Computing and CRN have united to present the Women in Tech Festival UK 2019, on 17 September in London.

The event will celebrate successful women in the IT industry, enabling attendes to hear about, and to share, personal experiences of professional journeys and challenges.

Whether you're the ‘Next Generation', an ‘Inspirational Leader', or an ‘Innovator of Tech' this event will offer inspiration on not only how to improve yourself, but how to help others too. The event is FREE for qualifying IT pros, but places will go fast