Hirers apparently fret about how clients will view her, despite general acceptance; she can only recall one client who objected to her identity. Anyway, her manager at the company she worked for then, IDATA, told the client to disappear.

When Ellis takes the stage for industry presentations, nobody bats an eyelid, because she is well known in her field and attendees just want to hear the content, she says. In 2011, she says, she presented for the Storage Networking Industry Association and won the most approval, edging the keynote speaker imported from the United States, with an appreciation score of 98 per cent. Her secret, she says, is that she focuses on practical experience and refuses to bluff.

"I'm not sales. I still work for a vendor and I still want the customer to buy our services, products – whatever, but I don't deliver it with bullshit," she says. When appropriate, she will tell a client they do not need a product: that beats making the sale and losing their business, according to Ellis.

The straight-talker, who earns a shade under $150,000, comes from Cornwall. Raised by a Royal Navy officer and a bookkeeper, young Ellis aspired to be an astronaut, in the common belief that soon everyone would live on the moon.

Ellis started out doing the British equivalent of a TAFE technology course and came top, but initially only found a job as a cleaner in Manchester University's psychology building, through a contact. Back then, in 1981 – the height of the Margaret Thatcher recession – good jobs were rare. Persevering, Ellis landed one as a computer operator for a British textile company and never looked back: she was hired by a string of IT firms, including Legato and EMC, before joining HP in 2008.