Simon Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford

Woolley was born in Leicester on 24 December 1961,[1] and was raised by his adoptive parents Phillis and Dan Fox.[2][3] He grew up on the St Matthew's estate[2] which he described as, "a working-class council estate but it was a hard-working council estate. You never felt that you were short of anything."[3] Woolley's adoptive parents fostered a number of other children during his childhood, Dan Fox died when Woolley was fourteen years old.[3]

Woolley left school without A-Levels and started his working life in an apprenticeship[4] as a car mechanic.[5] He moved to London at the age of nineteen[3] and spent four years in advertising for The Rank Organisation in Wardour Street, before deciding to study Spanish and Politics at Middlesex University.[4] During his studies, Woolley spent time in Costa Rica and Colombia,[5] he went on to earn a Master of Arts in Hispanic literature at Queen Mary University of London.

Woolley become engaged with British politics, joining the campaign group Charter 88.[4] He started to research the potential impact of a black vote, which Woolley argued could influence electoral outcomes in marginal seats.[4][6][7] These findings encouraged Woolley to launch Operation Black Vote in 1996.[8] Operation Black Vote has launched voter registration campaigns, an app to inspire and inform black and minority ethnic (BME) individuals and worked with Saatchi & Saatchi on a pro bono advertising campaign.[9] Woolley also worked to empower communities and to integrate better politics education into the school curriculum.[10] The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation estimated that Woolley's efforts encouraged millions of people to vote.[9] Much of his work has been around nurturing BME civic and politic talent: the then Home Secretary Theresa May said in a speech in Westminster in 2016, "Today we celebrate a record number of BME MPs in parliament - 41. British politics and British society greatly benefits when we can utilise diversity’s teaming talent pool. That’s why today we are announcing that in the months ahead we will begin a new MP and business shadowing scheme".[11]

Woolley served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.[12][13] In 2008, the Government Equalities Office released Woolley's report How to achieve better BME political representation.[14] He was appointed to the Equalities Commission in 2009.[15] He has launched two governmental investigations, including REACH, which looked to tackle the alienation of black youth, as well as working with Harriet Harman on the political representation of black and minority ethnic women.[16] He worked with Bernie Grant, Al Sharpton, Naomi Campbell and Jesse Jackson on grassroots campaigns highlighting racial discrimination.[4]

In 2017 Operation Black Vote, the Guardian newspaper and Green Park Ltd launched the Colour of Power, to date the most in-depth look at the racial make-up of Britain's top jobs across 28 sectors that dominate British society.[17] The results were reported in The Guardian: "Barely 3% of Britain’s most powerful and influential people are from black and minority ethnic groups, according to a broad new analysis that highlights startling inequality despite decades of legislation to address discrimination".[18]

He has called for local councillors to become more diverse, after it emerged that of the 200 councillors in South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset, no one was from a black or minority ethnic background.[19] In May 2019, Woolley and Operation Black Vote launched a ground-breaking report into more than 130 key local authorities that emphasised the lack of BME representation. In over one third of those local authorities, many with sizeable BME populations, they either had no or just one BME councillor.[20][21]

Along with former Downing Street advisors Nick Timothy and Will Tanner, Woolley is seen as the inspiration and one of the architects for the Government of the United Kingdom Race Disparity Unit, and served as the Advisory Chair.[22][23] He has worked with the Open Source Foundation on their global drugs policy projects. He secured £90 million of funding to encourage disadvantaged young people to work.[4][24] When Operation Black Vote started, there were four black or minority ethnic members of parliament; as of 2019, there are over 50.[4] He has written for The Guardian, Huffington Post and The Independent.[25][26][27]

Commonwealth honours

Commonwealth honours

Country	Date	Appointment	Post-nominal letters
United Kingdom	2019 – Present	Knight Bachelor	Kt

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree	Gave Commencement Address
England	2012	University of Westminster	Doctorate [35]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Memberships and fellowships

Country	Date	Organisation	Position
United Kingdom	2019 – Present	Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor	Member

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.