Keep Your Tech FLAME Alive: Trailblazer Suzanne Wheeler

I grew up in Cheshire knowing exactly what I wanted to do: journalism. I got an apprenticeship at a big local newspaper in the West Midlands and off I went. But the newsroom was an unpleasant surprise. It was aggressive and male-dominated. I was called “the skirt” and asked to make tea. I tried to hold my own, but the shine wore off quickly.

Everything changed when I was chatting to a very glamorous woman from the advertising department. She took a liking to me and, as the manager of that department, she was able to pull me into her team. On my very first day of making cold calls, I sold a double-page full-color spread. I was hooked.

My love of sales and communication carried me through jobs at Yellow Pages, yell.com, and eventually BT, where I made the move into cybersecurity.

Yes, and it wasn't pretty. At my last company, the product I was looking after didn't make it to launch. I was given the choice between a new role or redundancy, which was a very scary choice. Around the same time, I was diagnosed with ADHD, my new house was being renovated, and I was raising my daughter by myself. It felt like everything hit at once. But I chose redundancy.

Within two hours of posting on LinkedIn, a contact messaged me asking if I'd ever thought about distribution — and I was intrigued. Joe took me under his wing, introduced me to Infinigate, and I’ve never looked back. Sometimes your next chapter finds you before you've figured out what you're looking for.

Both, honestly. Some people are mentors without knowing it. They touch your life and teach you something. Others, you have to approach. My advice is: Don't be afraid to ask. I'm nearly 50 years old and I'm still actively seeking mentors. I don't think you ever stop learning.

Some of my most important mentors have been people who just believed in me and gave me a chance.

But there are a few special women who shaped me in ways I'm still discovering — a colleague at BT who opened the door to cyber, a counterpart at Akamai who keeps me organized, and the founder of Leading Cyber Ladies who escaped a war zone with her young child and still jumped on a train to speak at one of our events. I listened to her amazing story and thought, “I've been crying in my kitchen about my shopping list.” Perspective is a mentor, too.

It's taken most of my life to get here. There were versions of me shaped by what other people expected and by what felt safe. Now, there's no gray area — if I don't like something, I'm not doing it. If I love something, I go all in.

That shift came from my life experiences and struggles, but also from watching my daughter move through the world so completely and unapologetically herself. She's a 19-year-old powerhouse now — and, without knowing it, she's one of my greatest heroes.

Today, I have a faceless Instagram account where I share motivational quotes. It’s important to me to keep showing up for the people who will read a quote on a Tuesday morning and feel understood.

Women are leaving tech, not because they can't do the job, but because there's nobody in their field who looks like them. We're struggling at just 17% representation. And that's heartbreaking.

I went to one of the Leading Cyber Ladies events recently and noticed a woman standing alone, looking a bit withdrawn. I went over and told her I was glad she came. Within minutes, she started to cry. She said she'd never felt like anybody wanted to talk about what it's really like to be a woman in this industry.

That's why the Leading Cyber Ladies network exists. If we can make one person feel less alone, then we've done our job.

The tide is changing, but we're not there yet.

Know your tribe, be authentic, and keep growing the revolution. It's not boasting to celebrate what you've done; it's not arrogance to take up space. Networking, even if you hate it, is everything. Go to the events. Find your people.

It just takes one person to start something — and that person could be you.

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