[1] Shepherd was born in Durban, South Africa in 1944, the daughter of Professor Otto Budtz-Olsen[2] and his wife Molly.
Budtz-Olsen attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School where she excelled in maths and physics.
Budtz-Olsen married and she joined her husband in Mackay where she worked at the Sugar Research Institute.
[5] Shepherd and her family returned to Brisbane in 1983 and she formed the company Mosaic Information Technology which designed and manufactured telecommunications products and modems from 1986.
Shepherd was a trained pianist who received her Graduate Diploma in Music from the Queensland Conservatorium in 1984.