Sarah Wood OBE is a digital entrepreneur and diversity advocate, driving innovation and transforming business culture for the better.
She co-founded Unruly, the international video advertising marketplace, which was acquired by NewsCorp for £114 million in 2015.
Unruly grew from an idea charting the popularity of viral videos to a global online advertising business.
Unruly was built on the power of content to tell a story, working with brands that want to move people not just reach them, bringing emotional intelligence to digital advertising.
Sarah Wood is Senior Independent Director on the board of Tech Nation, the growth platform for ambitious British tech entrepreneurs.
She is an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust Women supporting Women Programme. Furthermore, Sarah is on the advisory boards for AccelerateHer and City Ventures and invests in UK tech startups & scaleups.
Drawing on her experience as CEO of Unruly, Sarah wrote the must-read career handbook ‘Stepping Up: How to Accelerate Your Leadership Potential’. Within the book, Sarah calls for more diverse, digital and empathetic business leaders.
Sarah has been a judge for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world.
She is in demand as a commentator on the technology industry, and business as a whole.
As a keynote speaker, Sarah Wood can cover topics from the Future of Technology to Women in Business, Diversity & Inclusion in Tech through to Leadership, as well as telling her own remarkable entrepreneurial business story.
Popular speaking topics include:
- My Story…
Sarah shares the personal, no-holds-barred story of one of the UK’s most successful female tech entrepreneurs, recounting the highs and the lows of scaling & selling a global tech company and the whys and WTFs of an accidental entrepreneur.
- Going Viral: Memes, Maths and the Unruly story.
A founder’s insight into how Unruly cracked the code on viral video and re-wrote the rules of digital marketing.
- Stepping Up:
Based on the 5V framework of vision, values, velocity, votes and victories. This is a masterclass in how to accelerate your leadership potential, love the life you lead and lift the team you lead.
- This is the Future Tech Built:
Why post-pandemic leadership needs to comes from the heart and not just the head. Which sectors will help the UK lead a fourth industrial revolution. Why we need more diverse leaders and what do about algorithmic racism and digital injustice.
Recognised for her work in the tech industry and for her entrepreneurship, Sarah has been named:
- Veuve Clicquot’s Businesswoman of the Year
- City AM’s Entrepreneur of the Year
Furthermore, Sarah was awarded an OBE for services to technology and innovation.
