Sarah Brown

Sarah Brown is Chair of Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education.

Since she founded Theirworld in 2002, its campaigns, advocacy and ground-breaking programmes have been rooted in the belief that every child deserves the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future.

Sarah and the charity team played a central role in gathering 11 million signatures – a record for education – for a petition that led to the creation of Education Cannot Wait, a world-first global fund for education in emergencies that has reached more than 4.6 million children.

In 2022 Theirworld spearheaded the #LetMeLearn campaign at the United Nations, which helped create a new funding mechanism that will unlock billions for education around the world.

In 2004 Sarah established the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh, which carries out vital, life-saving research into the causes of premature birth. Her commitment to the health of pregnant women and newborns continued with the Maternal Mortality Campaign (2008-2011) to reduce deaths in pregnancy and childbirth. As a result of her campaigning, rates of maternal mortality have been dramatically cut.