Tensie Whelan

Tensie Whelan is the founder and Director of NYU Stern School of Business’s Center for Sustainable Business, and has advised numerous companies such as Unilever and Nespresso on sustainability.

Full Bio Tensie Whelan, Clinical Professor for Business and Society, is the founder and Director of NYU Stern School of Business’s Center for Sustainable Business, where she brings 25 years of experience working on sustainability issues. As President of the Rainforest Alliance, she built the organization from a $4.5 million to $50 million budget, transforming the engagement of business with sustainability, recruiting 5,000 companies in more than 60 countries.

Her previous work included serving as Executive Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, and Managing Editor of Ambio, a journal of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards and corporate advisory boards for companies such as Unilever and Nespresso and currently serves on the advisory boards of ALO Advisors, Buzz on Earth, Giant Ventures, and Inherent Group. She was most recently appointed to the board of InvestIndustrial SPAC, and is an Advisor to the Future Economy Project for Harvard Business Review and is a member of the “Exploring the Future of Sustainable Production and Consumption” Working Group of the Council on Competitiveness. Tensie was awarded the Stern Faculty Excellence Award in 2020.