Tessa Clarke

Tessa Clarke is Co-Founder and CEO of OLIO, the world's first neighbour-to-neighbour sharing app, which has mobilised over 6 million users across 60 countries to share more than 120 million meals and 15 million household items, saving 110,000 tonnes of CO₂. A Cambridge graduate who led digital transformation at Dyson and worked with The Boston Consulting Group, Tessa combines sharp commercial insight with a passion for tech-driven social impact.

Food waste costs the global economy over $1 trillion annually, while millions go hungry and environmental damage accelerates. Tessa Clarke is the Co-Founder and CEO of OLIO, the world's first neighbour-to-neighbour sharing app, tackling this crisis by making it easier for people to share food and household items with others living nearby. What began as a simple idea sparked by personal frustration has grown into a global movement. Since launching in 2015, OLIO has attracted over 6 million users across more than 60 countries, with over 120 million meals and 15 million household items shared to date. This has helped save an extraordinary 13 billion litres of water and 110,000 tonnes of CO₂, and counting.

Tessa's career has been defined by driving purposeful innovation at scale. After studying Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge, she joined The Boston Consulting Group before moving into the media world at Emap, working across leading brands like FHM, Magic Radio and Retail Week. She later joined Dyson as their first C-level digital director, working closely with James Dyson to lead the company's global digital transformation. The idea for OLIO came during her second maternity leave, when removal men told her to throw away perfectly good food. Unable to find anyone nearby to share it with, she realised there had to be a better way. Under her leadership, OLIO has raised over £34 million in funding and been recognised by the United Nations, winning a coveted "Momentum for Change" award for its scalable impact on climate change. The app's growth has been powered by a grassroots community of over 100,000 volunteers, including Food Waste Heroes who collect surplus food from businesses like Tesco, Pret and Iceland to redistribute it via the platform.

A passionate advocate for tech with purpose, Tessa is an accomplished and compelling speaker on sustainability, innovation, the entrepreneurial journey, women in leadership, and the future of business. She's a TEDx speaker and regular columnist for Sifted, where she challenges conventional thinking on everything from founder mindsets to why customer support may become tech's most valuable function in the AI era. Her recent writing explores how startups should shift their language around sustainability, leading with personal and community benefit rather than carbon metrics alone. This insight reflects her broader philosophy: that real change happens when we make doing good feel human, accessible and rewarding. Tessa brings warmth, clarity and sharp insight to every stage she steps onto, cutting through the noise with powerful storytelling and a drive to show how small actions, done collectively, can change the world.