Unruly Co-Founder Sarah Wood Named In Debrett’s List Of 500 Most Influential People In Britain

Unruly co-founder and COO Sarah Wood has been named on a list of the 500 most influential people in Britain today.

The annual Debrett’s 500 list covers 24 categories across society, including sport, journalism, politics, advertising, architecture, food and education.

Sarah appears in the Digital section, alongside Baroness Shields, the chairwoman of Tech City, Mind Candy’s Michael Acton-Smith and World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Also featured in the annual publication – which has been running for almost 250 years and is carefully compiled by independent panels of specialists in each field – are the Prince of Wales, comedian Stephen Fry, David Attenborough, Tony Blair and Richard Branson.

Joanne Milner, chief executive at Debrett’s, said: “We are delighted to announce this year’s Debrett’s 500. It’s a fascinating mix of people, and not entirely who you might expect.

“Every individual, though, demonstrates outstanding qualities of influence, achievement and inspiration.

“I think now is the perfect time to consider how we can inspire the next generation of influencers, so that we can ensure that everyone, regardless of their background, has an equal opportunity to succeed. The Debrett’s Foundation is our way of addressing this issue.”

Sarah is one of only 147 women on the list, while her state school background also makes her stand out. Just over a third of the people on the list attended comprehensives, while 40% went to fee-paying schools.

Sarah said: “It’s a real honour to be included alongside so many of my business, digital and sporting heroes. That said, it’s troubling to see that only 29% of people on the list are female and only a third attended comprehensive school.

“This speaks to a lack of diversity in the corridors of British power, which is why it’s so important that Debrett’s are collecting data on the education and gender of their list – these stats are a measure of equality of opportunity and social mobility in the UK. Here’s the question we have to ask ourselves – what can we do to change the ratio in next year’s list?”