Karen Banks

Inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013 as a "Global Connector," Banks is a British computer networking pioneer recognized for expanding internet access to underserved communities worldwide. In the 1990s, she maintained GnFido, a pioneering gateway run by non-profit ISP GreenNet, which used store-and-forward techniques to provide otherwise unavailable internet access for individuals and organizations across Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Banks was one of the founders of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Women's Networking Support Programme (WNSP) in 1993 and served as its coordinator from 1996 to 2004. At the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, the WNSP provided web access and email for 10,000 delegates, many of whom had never seen a web page before. From 1998 to 2001, she coordinated APC's global internet rights work in Europe, and she became the organization's network development manager in 2004. She became APC's operations director.

In 2004, she received the Anita Borg Award for Social Impact from the Anita Borg Institute, in recognition of "significant and sustained contributions in technology." She became a board member of Privacy International. In 2018, Banks was recognized with the Oxford Internet Institute Award for her lifetime achievements in using information and communication technologies for social change.