Spotlight on: Ellen O’Rourke

We here at TouchByte think it’s vital that we amplify the voices of those who are a minority. In our case, it’s women working in the tech industry and particularly biometrics - they are few and far between. 

Although Ellen doesn’t spend her time coding, or developing industry-leading facial recognition algorithms, she has become a vital part of the TouchByte team, with a sound knowledge of how the tech actually works. 

Ellen joined the team in the Summer of 2019, as an intern in the Communications department. She was halfway through her degree in Journalism at this stage, and wanted to add another string to her bow. She worked alongside marketing professionals during the summer, quickly coming to grips with the world of AI and biometrics. 

She

graduated in 2020 with First Class Honours, and was snatched up by the Launchpad team at Falmouth University shortly after.

Ellen is embarking on a paid MSc in Entrepreneurship in October with Launchpad, and is very excited by the prospect of doing what she loves, but in this wonderful part of the world.

“Cornwall is this thriving hub of creative and innovative projects,” she says. “It’s by no means a sleepy county - it’s adapting to our new world, and full of opportunity wherever you look.”

“Plus, you can’t have horses in London,” she says, grinning. “Here, I can wake up in the morning, work towards my career goals, and still live the lifestyle that I’ve always dreamed of having.” 

 During her university days, Ellen created her own start-up company; a magazine for the modern witch. Despite not casting spells on her ex-boyfriends in her spare time, Ellen grew her company from nothing, to something. Witches is an internationally acclaimed magazine, shipped worldwide. It has a following of 20,000 witches across the globe. Somehow, she managed this while studying for her BA (Hons). 

Perhaps she is magic after all?

Back to now, Ellen is leading the digital marketing programme for us. She’s produced a host of targeted marketing material both for us and in collaboration with our partners – often taking the lead to drive things through to completion. She has also maximised the visibility of the Innovate UK grant we achieved gaining some fantastic press coverage. She’s also developed our new website, packed with a selection of online resources for our customers to access to learn more about our technology. Her background in journalism means she has a knack for producing relevant press releases and enjoys creating a ‘human’ angle on our tech. We see her developing her position as one of the leading women in biometrics. 

We’re delighted to have her working alongside us and it will be exciting to watch her progress, taking responsibility for developing and managing our marketing strategy. 

We believe in investing in young people; they are the future, after all.