Kathryn Parsons

Kathryn Parsons MBE is a British tech entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and co-CEO of Decoded, a London-based "code and data education and digital transformation company".^[1] Decoded launched in 2011 with its signature one-day course which claimed to train participants without any background in computers to "code in a day".^[2] Today Decoded's Digital and Data Academies are delivered to thousands of executives and policymakers across the world.^[3]

Kathryn Parsons
Born	Kathryn Parsons London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Downing College, Cambridge
Occupation	Co-CEO of Decoded
Years active	2011—present

Early life and education

Kathryn Parsons grew up in Highgate and attended Channing School.^[2] She studied Classical Studies at Downing College, Cambridge.^[4] "A linguist by training, she has mastered Japanese, Latin, Ancient Greek and Mandarin. For Parsons, programming is just another language that anyone can learn."^[5]

Honours and awards

Kathryn successfully campaigned for code to be introduced to the UK national curriculum^[6] making it one of the first countries in the world to do so.

She was awarded an MBE for Services to Education in the Queen’s New Year Honours.^[7]

Parsons sat on the Business Advisory Boards to Number Ten Downing Street and the London Mayors.^[8]

She joined the non-executive board of The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2017-2020.^[9]

Kathryn currently sits on the board of HM Treasury’s Rose Review into Female Entrepreneurship which seeks to address the problem that women "receive less than 1 per cent of venture capital funding".^[10]

Parsons has won many awards for her contributions to technology and entrepreneurship, including the inaugural Veuve Clicquot New Generation Business Woman of the Year Award.^[11]