Icon Award Winner: Lady Tessy Ojo MBE
Words Abbianca Makoni
As a child, Lady Tessy Ojo MBE was taught the value of leadership without a title. It was the principle of, "if you see something that needs doing, just do it, without waiting on someone else to fix it."
It’s safe to say that her entire life has embodied this exact teaching. Not only is she a multi-award-winning social change advocate, a mother, and wife but she’s the CEO of one of the UK’s most respected charity foundations - the Diana Award.
It is to no surprise that Tessy has won WOTC’s Icon award for her continuous work supporting the younger generation. Through the Diana Award, created in honour of the late Princess of Wales, she has helped empower thousands of young people to fight the good fight and understand the potential they have to create change in their own communities.
Her drive to help launch the foundation came years after the Princess of Wales was tragically killed in a car crash in 1997. Tessy once described her death as a “defining moment” in her life like thousands of others, who were inspired by Diana’s passion for helping those in need.
The 50-year-old had responded to an advertisement in a local newspaper to help set up a new youth charity being formed.
Unaware, at the time, that this was actually the beginning of The Diana Award, the only charity across the world set up to continue the legacy of Diana.
Twenty years on and with over 100,000 young people who have been supported through this charity, through three core programs; many of whom are young leaders across nations, the charity has gone from strength to strength.
As CEO, the mother-of-two is responsible for the overall strategy development and implementation, sustainability, and development services for the Diana Award; both in the UK and International.
Prior to joining the Award, Tessy worked in the corporate sector for decades and helped to implement robust operational planning systems for IBM UK and Borders UK. But it was her husband that pushed her to pursue her dreams and live out her passion for helping the youth. She has often credited him as being one of the main reasons she has been able to thrive as both a mother and CEO.
Today, alongside leading the Diana Award, she is also on the boards of two charities and sits on the governing board of a chain of academies in London.
It’s clear that she is passionate about empowering and engaging young people in social action and this is evident in some of her other endeavours such as helping them reach their full potential by creating access and opportunities for skills development and character building.
Her leadership skills actually started at the tender age of 14 when her mother drafted her to lead various children’s clubs at the school she worked in. She was balancing the reading and dancing club after school.
What in turn may have seemed like too much to handle for some became a training ground for Tessy, who now balances several dozen roles and continues to thrive in every single one of them - effortlessly.