Sophie Pender was born on one of the biggest council estates in North London, raised by a single parent after losing her father to alcoholism and drug addiction. She worked two jobs — at McDonald's and John Lewis — while studying, and in 2014 became the first student in her school's history to achieve straight A*s at A-level, in a year when the school's GCSE pass rate stood at just 32%.
At 19, having left North London for the University of Bristol, Sophie discovered the invisible infrastructure that has long propelled the privately educated into positions of power: the Old Boys' Club. Rather than accept its existence, she dismantled its exclusivity — founding The 93% Club, a members' club for state-educated people built on exactly the same model. Today, it is the UK's largest network for state schoolers, with a university presence across the country and a professionals' network of over 50,000 members. Dubbed "the alternative old boys' network," the Club exists to give state schoolers what private schoolers have always had: connections, opportunity, and insider knowledge.
Sophie worked as a corporate lawyer for four years, and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, and a recipient of the Diana Award — the most prestigious accolade available to young people for humanitarian and social action. She has advised the UK Government on its National Youth Strategy, delivered a TEDx talk, How to Become Socially Mobile, and appeared as an expert in the Economist documentary Why It's Harder to Earn More Than Your Parents. She presented the BBC Radio 4 documentary The 93% Club, and her work has been covered by BBC News, ITV News, LBC, the Guardian, and the Telegraph.