Sophie Pender grew up in a single parent household on a council estate in North London after losing her father to his battle with alcoholism and drug addiction.
In 2014, she became the first student ever in her school's history to achieve straight A*s at A level in a school year where the GCSE pass rate was just 32%. Sophie attended the University of Bristol to study English Literature before being recruited by one of the world's most prestigious law firms, where she qualified as a corporate lawyer specialising in high value mergers and acquisitions.
At 19 years old, during her third year at university, Sophie discovered the existence of private school alumni networks that supported their members throughout their careers. Realising those same support networks were lacking for state schoolers, Sophie founded The 93% Club – a national members' club for state educated people – to do the same. Since then, The 93% Club has become the largest network of state educated people in the UK, with a huge university presence and a thriving professionals network supporting thousands of state educated students into the UK's most elitist professions. The mission? To transform what it means to be state educated in the UK, one connection at a time.
Featured in The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, and The Telegraph, Sophie has used her platform to highlight inequities within the UK's education system. She regularly writes about these issues, with notable op-eds in The Times on the state-private education divide and in The Financial Times on the working class experience.
A recipient of Forbes 30 Under 30 and The Diana Legacy Award, Sophie's work has been showcased across various media outlets, including BBC Radio 4 documentaries, The Economist, Sky News, and ITV News. Her TEDx talk focused on challenges faced by working-class students, and her story has been featured in podcasts including The Rest is Politics and Financial Times' How to Smash the Class Ceiling.