In 2011, 30-year IBM veteran Virginia Rometty was tapped as CEO, becoming the first woman to head the century-old tech giant and one of a tiny percentage of women leading major U.S. companies.

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Our rule of thumb is that every one percentage increase or decrease in nominal GDP translates into one-to-one-and-a-half percentage point increase or decrease in tech spending by the private sector.

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Mayor Rahm Emmanuel last month created a Technology Industry Diversity Council, which he tasked with increasing the percentage of minority employees in technology firms, increasing the percentage of minority-owned and operated tech companies, and creating a pipeline through which students can transition into the technology economy.

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So again, over the last 12 months, tech shares have underperformed the broad market by more than 20 percentage points.

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The lowest percentage of women investors was in the non-high tech products and services sector at eight percent.

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Unlike expensive high-tech surgery, Mr Mannion found a simple solution within the reach of more than a small percentage of the world's population.

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For schools and colleges, the Tech Bacc will become a league table performance measure from 2017, in the way that schools are measured by the percentage of pupils who have achieved academic English Baccalaureate subjects.

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