Tess Finch-Lees

Tess is a journalist and broadcaster. She specialises in politics, ethics and human rights. She has lived in Colombia and France and has worked around the world. She speaks English, Spanish and French (sort of) and has an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the University of London. Tess is also a qualified therapist (whilst working at Broadmoor Hospital she got locked in a room with Peter Sutcliffe). She worked with vulnerable children and families in Dublin, London and Bogota.

Tess is a recipient of the prestigious Woman of the Year Award (for her human rights achievements) and her work has featured on BBC radio 4. She frequently writes for The Independent and The Huffington Post, as well as having written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Belfast Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Feminist Times and The Irish Times, amongst others.

Tess has recently been a panellist on the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live show and has appeared on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky news. She was a specialist advisor on Sudan to David Cameron’s office. She has been an advisor on ethics, leadership and corporate governance to some of the largest corporations in the UK.

Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 2005, Tess warned of an impending global economic crash (“putting profits before people is an unsustainable business model and is symptomatic of leadership that lacks imagination, competence and morality”).

When the global crash came in 2008, Tess argued that capitalism, in its current form, had failed and that it should not be rescued. “I subscribe to the notion that things that don’t work should be allowed to fail. Only then can new and more efficient paradigms be put in place to correct the system. Not only have we bailed out the failed bankers but we’ve left intact the structures that facilitated their demise”.

Tess has been a visiting lecturer at Cambridge and Cranfield University. She speaks at and chairs conferences around the world. She believes in leprechauns and the medicinal powers of Poitin.