7. Dido Harding

Dido Harding is chief executive of the TalkTalk Group. As one of the UK's largest internet providers, she has urged action from the government on internet pornography and suicide sites. She led the industry in giving parents control of what content can be accessed on their home networks by offering a whole home internet filtering solution and asking parents to choose whether to use it.

Following this, she turned her focus to suicide websites, telling education ministers: "Suicide is more important to parents than porn, so why mandate [filters for] porn and not suicide?" TalkTalk has said suicide is the most commonly filtered subject matter by customers using its content filtering software, followed by self-harm, pornography, weapons and violence.

Dido Harding studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and gained an MBA from Harvard Business School. Last year she was named on Woman’s Hour’s inaugural Power List as one of the UK’s most powerful 100 women.

She first worked for management consultancy McKinsey & Company, before taking on a number of roles at director level for a range of high street stores.