AND Digital's latest London Club now has a name: Say hello to Gladys

If you’re a part of AND Digital or you’ve worked with us, you’ll know that our Clubs are named after pioneering figures — sometimes from within technology (eg. Club [Alan] Turing; Club Ada [Lovelace]), and sometimes in other fields (Club Tenzing [Norgay]). Whoever they are, it’s always someone inspirational, and frequently it’s someone who has opened up whole new fields in tech. But for their vision, we’d all be doing something else somewhere else. 

To choose the name for our fifth London club, the Club team put forward their individual suggestions for pioneers that represented not only AND's values (Wonder, Share, and Delight) but also the club's values: ‘Be Brave and Cultivate Curiosity. We pitched our pioneer to the team then voted for the shortlist. The final final vote was given to our Founder. And so Club Gladys was born!  

“I want our new club to be welcoming and inclusive, collaborative, and to make a real impact on people’s lives through the work we do. Gladys West’s life and work is a wonderful embodiment of all these values — I’m delighted that our new club is named in her honour and we’ll be inspired by her each and every day.”

 

- Zoe Kelleher,  Club Executive, Club Gladys

Who is Gladys West?

Gladys Mae West is certainly an inspiration and leader in her field. She’s an American mathematician known for her contributions to the mathematical modelling of Earth. Her work on the development of the satellite geodesy models underpins the Global Positioning System (GPS) we use every single day. It drives car satnavs and pilot navigation systems, and even helps farmers harvest their crops. Many of us would literally be lost if it weren’t for Gladys! 

But it’s not just Gladys’ groundbreaking work,  or its impact on all of us, that makes her an obvious choice for our latest Club name. She’s an example of how tech can and should be open to people from all backgrounds. As a Black woman from a farming background, against many odds she pursued a STEM field career in the 1960s - at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

A recipient of a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award, Gladys was also part of the BBC’s 100 Women of 2018, and in 2021 she was awarded the Prince Philip Medal by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. It’s their highest individual honour, and Gladys was the first woman to receive it.

Join Club Gladys: If you are interested in a new role please check out our open roles here.

We believe the name of Gladys Mae West should be known and celebrated far beyond the industry. In naming our latest Club after her, we hope to play a small part in increasing that awareness. 

If you'd like to find out more about Club Gladys and our work please email rachel.johnson@and.digital.