Sarah Wynn Williams/ Careless People

Who She Is & What She’s All About

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a lawyer, public policy expert, and former diplomat from New Zealand who transitioned into the high-stakes world of Big Tech. Having worked internationally—including serving as a diplomat in Washington, D.C.—she transitioned into corporate governance when she successfully pitched for a role at Facebook, eventually rising to become the company’s Director of Global Public Policy from 2011 until 2017. Today, she is focused heavily on global tech policy, ethics, corporate accountability, and the critical societal implications of artificial intelligence.

Why She Wrote *Careless People*

Wynn-Williams penned her explosive memoir to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of Big Tech. Inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous phrase from The Great Gatsby, Careless People serves as a stark warning about institutional power, unchecked corporate greed, and the erosion of idealism at the highest levels of Silicon Valley. She wrote it to expose the stark contrast between the public personas of tech monoliths and the chaotic, often hazardous decision-making happening behind closed doors that directly shapes our modern world.

Previous & Future Works

• Previous Works: Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism is her debut book. Upon its release, it rocketed to #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller list and earned accolades as a best book of the year from major publications like TIME, The New Yorker, and Scientific American.
• What’s Next: Moving forward, Wynn-Williams continues her advocacy and thought leadership around digital governance and ethics, maintaining a specialized focus on how emerging artificial intelligence systems impact global policy, human rights, and corporate responsibility.

About the Book: *Careless People*

“A darkly hilarious, shocking tale that starts as farce and ends as tragedy.”

Careless People is a propulsive, novelistic, and deeply eye-opening memoir that gives readers a front-row seat to the room where global policy meets corporate self-interest. Part biting satire, part harrowing corporate thriller, the book details Wynn-Williams's time navigating the intense internal politics of Facebook—exposing everything from high-level lobbying and government relations to unaddressed workplace misconduct and the ethical blind spots of tech executives. It is a fast-paced, unputdownable cautionary tale about what happens when unprecedented technological power is left unchecked.