We’re asking some of our industry’s leading figures to nominate their digital hero and to explain what’s so special about them.
Nancy Cruikshank is one of the digital industry’s longest serving and most successful entrepreneurs and has founded, run and advised multiple companies since having sold her first business, Handbag.com, to Hearst for a reported £22m in 2006.
She is currently serving at Carlsberg Group as SVP Digital Business Transformation and is founder and chairman of personal shopping service MyShowcase.
Who is your digital hero?
What have they done to win hero status in your eyes?
His writing in Wired US in 1995 inspired me (and I suspect, many others) to get into tech.
In 1995, I agreed to launch Conde Nast online here in the UK having only seen ‘the internet’ once over someone’s shoulder before taking the job!
But his clarity of vision that came through in his writing enabled me to see a bigger picture that I couldn’t resist being a part of (even in those early days!)
How has their heroism helped drive digital?
Vision!
He painted a picture that inspired entrepreneurial risk-taking, a desire by many to take part in making the vision possible.
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
Tech ethics and the complex evolution of pragmatic policy to support us in a world where Bird or Lime scooters litter our streets, autonomous cars are everywhere, robots and cobots become a bigger part of the workforce, machine learning and advanced analytics power everything……..
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
Launching 3 startups and surviving!
