Alice Bentinck

Alice Bentinck

Bentinck in 2016
Born July 1986 (age 31)
New Forest, England
Nationality British
Occupation Technology consultant, educator and blogger
Years active 2011 to present
Known for Co-founder and COO, Entrepreneur First
co-founder, Code First: Girls

Alice Bentinck MBE (born July 1986)[1] is a British technology consultant, educator and blogger. She is the co-founder and COO of Entrepreneur First, a London-based startup accelerator for UK and Central European tech graduates, and also the co-founder of the Code First: Girls free web programming courses for women in university. An advocate for the entry of more women to the tech field, she was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organisation in 2015.

Early life and education

Bentinck grew up in the New Forest region of southern England.[2][3] She attended the Godolphin School in Salisbury, an all-girls boarding school.[4] There she enrolled in Young Enterprise, creating a business model for handmade purses.[5] She then attended the Nottingham University Business School, graduating with a bachelor of arts in management studies, with first class honours.[6]

Career

In 2008 Bentinck interned in the office of Tony Blair in London, where she also assisted the Africa Governance Initiative.[4][6] From 2009 to 2011 she was a management consultant in the London office of McKinsey & Company.[6][7]

In 2011 Bentinck and Matthew Clifford, a McKinsey colleague, founded Entrepreneur First, an accelerator that assists promising university graduates in the computer science and engineering fields to create their own startups and access seed funding.[6][8] Bentinck serves as COO while Clifford is CEO.[9] The six-month, cohort-based program receives more than 1,500 applications per year and accepts 100.[6] In its first four years, Entrepreneur First helped establish 75 startups valued at $450 million.[10]

Noticing that most individuals applying to Entrepreneur First were male,[6][11] Bentinck and Clifford founded Code First: Girls in 2012. This nonprofit initiative provides free web programming courses for female university students from arts backgrounds, giving them skills to switch to the tech sector.[6] In addition to courses, students are mentored by female industry professionals.[12] The program is offered at Oxford, Durham, St Andrews, and Bristol universities.[11] In its first year, Code First: Girls graduated 500 students.[5] According to Bentinck, 70 percent of enrollees switched their career tracks to tech as a result of the courses.[6]

In March 2015 Bentinck began blogging for Tech World on the topic "Turning Techies Into Founders".[4]

Other activities

In 2014 Bentinck was appointed one of the Prime Minister's advisors for the Northern Future Forum in Helsinki.[2]

She has been a member of the advisory board of Founders4Schools since April 2014, and a member of the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board at Imperial College London since April 2015.[4] In September 2015 she became a mentor for Girls in Tech London.[13]

Honours and awards

In 2015 she was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organisation.[7]

In 2014 she was named to several newspaper and magazine lists. She was named one of "The 1000 – London's Most Influential People" by the London Evening Standard,[14] one of the "35 Women Under 35" by Management Today,[15] and was cited as a "Rising Star" by Computer Weekly as part of their 2014 Most Influential Women in UK IT campaign.[16] Additionally, the British Interactive Media Association included her on its BIMA Hot 100 of 2014.[17]

In 2013 she was ranked No. 19 on The Drum's "30 Under 30 Women in Digital" list.[3] She was a Top 25 finalist in the Tech City Movers and Shakers 2013[18] and the Girls in Tech Ones to Watch 2013.[19]

Bentinck was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to business.[20]

Personal

Bentinck has participated in competitive carriage driving since her youth.[3]

Selected articles

References

  1. ↑ "Entrepreneur First Founder Gp Limited RHU". bizstats.co.uk. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Women Entrepreneurs under 30 / Alice Bentinck". The Magic Elephant. 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Drum 30 under 30 #19: Alice Bentinck, co-founder, Entrepreneur First". The Drum. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Alice Bentinck". LinkedIn. 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  5. 1 2 "An Interview with Alice Bentinck". Business Cloud Magazine. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Ms Alice Bentinck – Co-founder EF & Code First: Girls" (PDF). Northern Future Forum. 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Meet the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech". Inspiring Fifty. 2015. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Weinberg, Jonathan (25 February 2014). "A Tech Accelerator Grows in London". Fortune. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Focus on Founders: Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford at Entrepreneur First". McKinsey & Company Alumni Center. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  10. ↑ Davidson, Lauren (20 September 2015). "Could this London accelerator be the biggest creator of start-ups in the world?". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Cracking the Code: An Interview with Alice Bentinck". The Gryphon. September 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Bateman, Kayleigh (21 November 2012). "Entrepreneur First encourages girls to consider a career in tech". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Shead, Sam (9 September 2015). "Girls in Tech London launches exclusive mentoring programme backed by Google, Amazon and Spotify execs". Tech World. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "The 1000 – London's most influential people 2014: Tech stars". London Evening Standard. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "'I Was Told People Like Me Didn't Go To Oxford". Management Today. 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  16. ↑ Bateman, Kayleigh (7 July 2014). "Alice Bentinck, co-founder Entrepreneur First". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  17. ↑ "The BIMA Hot 100, 2014". British Interactive Media Association. 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Announcing the Tech City Top 25". Tech City News. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Alice Bentinck, co-Founder, Entrepreneur First". Digital Entrepreneur Awards. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  20. ↑ "No. 61608". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2016. p. B16.
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