For women and minorities, representation in technology is getting worse not better, the CTO of Fidelity Investments Steve Neff, told Inspirefest 2015. He urged leaders to use innovation to increase diversity in their organisations.

Founded in 1946, Fidelity is one of the world’s biggest financial services companies, serving more than 250m people worldwide.

Neff said that in the US across the board women hold 50pc of professional jobs, but in the tech industry this is less than 25pc.

Neff said that for minorities the problem is extremely pronounced, with African-Americans holding 3pc of professional roles and Hispanics 2pc of roles.

“In the US it is getting worse. For women and minorities, especially in STEM, there is not enough representation in technology as a whole.”