Why Cyprus tech needs more women CEOs and board members

Eurostat data shows Cyprus has seen rapid growth in ICT employment over the past decade, with the strongest gains among women. A Cyprus Mail report, citing Eurostat, puts average annual ICT employment growth at 9.2 per cent from 2014 to 2024, with women’s ICT employment growing 13.7 per cent a year.

Now compare that momentum with who sits at the top table.

The European Institute for Gender Equality’s 2025 factsheet for Cyprus puts women at 24 per cent of ICT specialists and 26 per cent of management positions. Yet women account for just 11 per cent of board members in the largest quoted companies.

That gap matters, in Cyprus and globally, because the board meeting is where strategy hardens into decisions.

Cyprus Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou framed it as a governance issue: “Seeing women at the helm of tech companies is crucial for innovation, equality and responsible technology. Women bring diverse perspectives that improve products, services and workplace cultures, while challenging stereotypes and inspiring the next generation. In a sector that increasingly influences every aspect of our lives, their presence is especially important in preventing the perpetuation of gender biases in AI and other systems”.

She added: “A gender-balanced leadership is not only fair – it is a strategic advantage for companies and society, ensuring that technology develops in ways that are inclusive, ethical and reflective of the world we live in”.

The global picture is improving, but slowly

A Deloitte global study of more than 18,000 companies across 50 countries found women hold 23.3 per cent of board seats worldwide. Only 8.4 per cent of boards are chaired by women. Only 6 per cent of CEOs are women.

Deloitte’s projection is blunt: at the current pace, parity for CEOs would not arrive before 2111.

Those are not abstract numbers. In tech, the CEO and board shape hiring, product risk, security priorities, AI governance and where capital gets deployed.

Cofounder and CTO of Cocoon Creations Elena Georgiou Strouthos strongly believes that “Having women on boards and in CEO roles in tech matters because that’s where the decisions about what gets funded and built are made. When women are absent entire perspectives, markets, and needs are overlooked. If leadership does not reflect society, the products and policies it creates won’t either. And yes, representation directly influences company culture & ethical choices”.

Why it matters to your business

If you run a tech company, diversity at the top is not a “nice to have”. It affects performance, resilience and credibility with investors.

McKinsey’s “Diversity wins” research found companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 per cent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile. It also found a 48 per cent differential likelihood of outperformance between the most and least gender-diverse companies in its analysis.

Boards also set the tone for what gets measured.

Partner at TKI, Monica Ioannidou Polemiti, mentions “I believe a homogeneous Board often finds the easiest answer, not the smartest one. We must make the conscious effort to include women because we force the leadership to solve the right problems, not just the comfortable ones”.

The funding system still filters out women

The leadership gap is reinforced by how tech is financed.

PitchBook’s 2024 data shows female-founded companies represented 21.5 per cent of VC exit activity in Europe and 24.3 per cent in the US. In Europe, female founders raised €10 billion in 2024 for the fourth year in a row. PitchBook also notes women represent about 15 per cent of decision-makers at larger European VC firms.

In deep tech, the picture is harsher.

A European Institute of Innovation and Technology study says women-founded startups receive 15 per cent of seed funding, and just 11 per cent of early- and late-stage VC investment.

If you want more women CEOs in Cyprus tech scene, you need more women with access to board roles, operator networks, and investment committees. The pipeline is not only inside companies. It is also in capital.

What should change in your next board meeting?

Firstly, you do not fix this with one appointment and a press release. You fix it with process.

Secondly, stop treating prior CEO roles as the default filter for board seats. Build skills-based criteria, then recruit to it.

Thirdly, put senior women into profit and loss ownership and product leadership, not only support functions.

We must break down the barriers that stop many women being represented in decision-making roles.

In Cyprus, the case is simpler.

Tech is growing. Women’s participation in the sector is rising. But the seats of power are not keeping up.

If you want Cyprus tech to compete globally, you need leadership that matches your market, your workforce and your ambitions.