Tessa Tennant
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29 May 1959
Tessa Tennant OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | Teresa Mary Cormack 29 May 1959 Bletchingley, Surrey, England |
| Died | 7 July 2018 (aged 59) |
| Alma mater | King's College London |
| Occupation(s) | Environmentalist, businesswoman |
| Spouses | Henry Lovell Tennant
(m. 1983; died 1990)Bill Staempfli
(m. 2007) |
| Children | 1 |
Teresa Mary "Tessa" Tennant OBE (née Cormack; 29 May 1959 – 7 July 2018)[1] was a British advocate of sustainable investment. She co-founded one of the UK's first green investment funds. She was a pioneer in the field of responsible investment and was described by The Economist in its obituary notice as "a giant of green finance."[2][3][4]
Tennant was born in Bletchingley, Surrey, the youngest daughter and third of four children of Hon. Gwendoline Rita Jean Davis Cormack (née Davies) and John MacRae Cormack, an oil company engineer. Her mother was the daughter of David Davies, first Baron Davies, a Welsh Liberal politician and philanthropist. After attending Prior's Field School, Godalming, Tennant studied for a degree in human environmental studies at King's College London. Following her graduation, she worked for the Green Alliance in the early 1980s. Subsequently, Tennant co-founded the UK's first green investment fund, the Merlin (now Jupiter) Ecology Fund, in 1988.[1][5]
During her career, Tennant helped lead and found several influential organisations for green and responsible investors including UKSIF, AsRIA and the Carbon Disclosure Project.[6] Among other roles, she served as a director of the Green Investment Bank.[7]
During her career, Tennant was a pioneer in the field of responsible investment. She led the creation and was first Chair of the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia based in Hong Kong (ASrIA), and The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which works with over 18,700 of the largest corporations and 1,100 local governments in the world to reduce their environmental impact.
Awards and honours
In June 2018, the Financial Times/IFC Transformational Business Awards presented Tennant with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award and announced that this award would be named after her in future.[4]
In 2018, she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to sustainable investment. She received her OBE at Holyrood Palace.[8][9][10]