Silicon Valley veteran to speak at Glasgow Impact Summit

Impact Summit, an event celebrating and promoting values-led business, has unveiled a veteran Silicon Valley software developer as its headline speaker.

Zoi Kantounatou, FutureX co-founder, speaking at 2018's Impact Summit in Glasgow. Picture: Contributed

This year it is to host software engineer and technical leader April Wensel as one of its key presenters when it welcomes more than 400 attendees at the SWG3 warehouse in Glasgow on 15 May.

Founder of San Diego-based Compassionate Coding, an organisation that aims to bring emotional intelligence and ethics to software development, Wensel will share her strategies for incorporating a social conscience into technology as part of the event’s Tech for Good theme.

Wensel worked as a developer in Silicon Valley for more than a decade before establishing the coding firm in 2016.

Her appearance at the second annual Impact Summit marks the only Scottish date of her European speaking tour this spring.

She said: “By bringing together passionate individuals doing inspiring, heart-centred work, events like Impact Summit give me hope for the future of business.”

Compassionate Coding has joined as a partner of the summit, which has also secured the backing of wealth manager Cazenove Capital.

Bruce Walker, co-founder of Edinburgh-based summit organiser FutureX, said: “As the UK becomes an innovation leader in so many industries, it’s incredibly valuable to bring in these international perspectives and make Impact Summit an example of the kinds of collaborations needed to support a new vision of society.”