Jacqueline de Rojas


Jacqueline de Rojas is President of techUK and Chair of the Board of Digital Leaders. She serves as Non-Executive Director on the board of Rightmove, Costain Group, AO World and supports the Government of the United Kingdom in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. She serves as co-Chair for the Institute of Coding.

Early life and education

de Rojas was born Jacqueline Yu in Folkestone to a Chinese father and British mother. Her mother was a victim of domestic violence, and together with de Rojas escaped to Swindon to live with her grandparents. She completed a degree in European business at Middlesex University and Reutlingen University in 1986. She joined Synon as a recruiter for their German network.

Career

de Rojas has worked in various blue chip software companies, including CA Technologies. She joined Citrix Systems as Vice President for Northern Europe in 2014. She pushed for more flexible working to increase productivity. She left Citrix to join Sage Group in 2016, and stepped down after 6 months. She published a Women in Tech Manifesto for TechUK in 2014 and was appointed President of TechUK in 2015. TechUK represent over 900 UK-based tech companies.
In 2017 de Rojas joined Costain Group as non-executive director. That year she became Chair of Digital Leaders, a global initiative that promotes effective digital transformation. She is the Chair of Digital Leaders UK, an online platform that provides opinion and advice on technology. She was on The Prince's Trust committee for several years and managed The Technology Leadership Group. de Rojas was appointed as an advisor to the Board of financial analytics company Metapraxis in 2018. She launched the Institute of Coding with the University of Bath in 2018. The Institute of Coding involves industry and academia, working together to end the UK digital skills gap. de Rojas serves as co-chair of the Governance Board. She was interviewed by Lawrence Jones in 2018.

Advocacy

de Rojas, who has been described in media as a British Asian woman, is a campaigner for increased cultural diversity in technology. She is an ambassador for Girl Guides, the 30 % club and the Founder's Forum AccelerateHer. In 2018 she advised the GirlGuides on their new STEM badge. She spoke at the MTV Young Women in Business conference in June 2018. She serves as a judge for the Northern Tech Awards.

Awards and honours

Her awards and honours include: