The power of women. Stop blocking and start empowering women

Dr Parves Khan’s early childhood experience of poverty and homelessness in Bristol has had a profound impact on the trajectory of her life and career. After her parents lost their family home to debt when she was 11, the family lived in temporary bed & breakfast accommodation until they were rehoused by the local council three years later. To pass the time during the weekends and school holidays (they had no TV), Parves would visit Bristol central library and browse through books of different genres – fiction and non-fiction. She found solace among the grandeur of the Edwardian building with its neoclassical interior of round-arched vaulting, glass mosaic and marbled flooring and staircases – a sharp contrast to the one bedroom the family all lived in. But it was the books that had a transformative influence on her. She read initially because she was bored but, the more she read, the more she fell in love with learning about the world around her and particularly the way humans functioned and thought. That love for learning stayed with her and, after her studies, she pursued a career in research and data analytics.
Over the past three decades, Parves has worked across the UK and overseas, leading the business and consumer insight function of public and private sector organisations, and serving as CEO. She has an avid interest in the role of technology in shaping the future of work and in supporting the next generation of tech talent from underserved communities. As a board member of several associations dedicated to normalising gender balance and equality in the tech industry, Parves is committed to bringing about gender parity in the workplace and beyond. She is mentor to female analysts and has written several articles on topics ranging from the role of artificial intelligence in education, plugging workforce skill gaps, data strategy and leadership.
In 2021, Parves was awarded the accolade of being one of the UK’s 20 most inspirational women in data by Women in Data, a movement and force for change in the field of data analytics and data science.