Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown’s work brings together the worlds of business, philanthropy, social media and charity campaigning. As the founding Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, Founder and President of the international children’s charity PiggyBankKids, Co-Founder of the Maternal Mortality Campaign, Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, Sarah provides strategic leadership to worldwide efforts to save and change the lives of women and children. Her contribution has been recognised with the Vision and Impact Award from the Global Business Coalition for Health, an Honorary Fellowship from Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Recognition Award from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
In the course of her work on women’s health, Sarah has addressed the World Health Assembly’s Annual General Meeting and the International Confederation of Midwives and chaired a United Nations Special Meeting that heralded the end of healthcare user fees for pregnant women in 16 countries. Sarah’s deep commitment to the health of pregnant women and newborns led to her founding PiggyBankKids, an international children’s charity which administers the Jennifer Brown Research Fund, established in memory of Sarah and Gordon’s first child.
As Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education she is steering the first private sector CEOs and foundation directors’ delegations to meet with government leaders in India and Nigeria. Founding members of the Coalition include the Chairman/CEOs of Tata, Grupo Carso, Dangote Industries, Econet Wireless, McKinsey, Accenture, Discovery, Pearson, Western Union and Reed Smith.
She previously was Managing Director of one of Britain’s most dynamic independent communications companies and subsequently led a global arts PR firm. A passionate advocate of women’s leadership, Sarah’s corporate involvement continued as Patron of the CBI First Women Awards to honour women in the boardroom and at the helm of Britain’s successful start ups and growing businesses. Sarah is also a Non-Executive Director of Harrods Group (Holding) Limited.
She is the author of best-selling book Behind the Black Door and regularly rallies her million plus twitter followers (as @SarahBrownUK) in support of its central message: whatever platform you have in life, you can always use it to make a difference. She tweets in support of the many charities she is involved with including those she serves as a patron; Women’s Aid, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and SHINE Education Trust.
Sarah spent part of her early life in Tanzania in East Africa, before going to school in London and then studying Psychology at Bristol University. Sarah lives in London and Scotland with her husband, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Member of Parliament Gordon Brown, and their two sons John and Fraser.
