Kathryn Parsons, MBE

Kathryn Parsons is the Founder and co-CEO of Decoded, a technology education company founded with a mission to demystify the digital world.

Their work teaching code, data, and cyber skills have reached over half a million people in 85+ cities worldwide. Today Decoded is the go-to for leaders looking to rapidly transform the digital capability and culture of their businesses. Global clients include Unilever, Nike, HSBC, Burberry, Citi, and MasterCard.

Kathryn founded the business in 2011 with a credit card and a mission to teach anyone Code in a Day. Driven by a personal desire to learn and to remove the fear, jargon, and cliches that made technology impenetrable. Kathryn’s passion for languages started at a young age, learning French, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese, and ultimately Latin and Ancient Greek at Downing College, Cambridge. For her, code is just another language, the language of the future, and one she believes anyone can learn.

Today, as we witness the disruptive impact of technology on traditional economies and social systems, the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, Kathryn is calling upon us to launch an “Education Revolution”, one which is adaptive, expansive, and lifelong to ensure that that the great benefits of technology flow to all of us.

Kathryn campaigned for coding as mandatory on the UK National Curriculum. It was successfully introduced in 2014, making the UK one of the first countries in the world to do so, and in 2015 she received an MBE in the Queen’s Honours for Services to Education.

In addition to growing and scaling her business, Kathryn is a regular Keynote Speaker on “Rewiring Businesses”, sharing her experience of how leaders, governments, and individuals can embrace a digital economy.

Kathryn is also a Motivational Speaker. Fuelled by her passion for education and technology, she teaches how to embrace lifelong learning, by giving ourselves permission to learn and grow.