Shirley is Head of External Relations at Cambridge Enterprise which exists to help University of Cambridge inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs make their ideas and concepts more commercially successful for the benefit of society, the UK economy, the inventors and the University. In 1999 Shirley co-authored the successful bid on behalf of the University of Cambridge for government funding to create the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre which has now developed into Cambridge Enterprise. She is an Independent Governor of Anglia Polytechnic University. In March 2002 at the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards – Shirley became Businesswoman of the Year 2001.
