“If you want to be knowledgeable and successful, you have to be aware of what you don’t know. You have to decide whether to learn the topic yourself or surround yourself with people who have that knowledge.”
Tessy is the Founder of the Global consultancy ‘Finding Butterflies Consultancy Ltd’ and is an associate at LSEideas at the London School of Economics.
She is committed to education and her Foundation, ‘Professors Without Borders’ brings top-level educators and global experts to the doorsteps of students worldwide, in order to develop talent. Tessy is also an ambassador for UNAIDS (Global Advocate for Young Women and Adolescent Girls) and is the patron to UNA-UK.
In the past, Tessy spent five years in the Luxembourg military, during which she was deployed in Kosovo as a peacekeeper and only woman of her draft.
She was bestowed the Dame Grand Cross of Order of Adolphe of Nassau from HRH Grand Duc Henri of Luxembourg and received the Woman of the Decade award from the Women Economic Forum in January 2017. This is the Humanities medal for spreading humanistic ideas worldwide and the Global Empowerment Award for her work in Africa.
Tessy was named “Leader of the Year 2019” by the Leadership Academy in Luxembourg and received an Honorary Doctorate for her work in and around education globally by the Paris College of Arts in May 2019.
Top tips
- Always respect people’s time
- Do everything with integrity and kindness
- Do not sell yourself short, know your worth
- Be present in the moment and try to connect to your audience with authenticity
- Listen more than you speak
- If you say you will do something, do it
- Never underestimate the power of the word
- Try to turn every negative into a positive, where there is a will there is a way
Best piece of advice I have been given
Be you, everyone else is already taken.
Always remain kind. People do not remember the circumstances. They remember the way you reacted to the circumstances.
Who looks outside, dreams: who looks inside, awakes – Carl Jung
Key Advice for someone looking to progress
“If you want to be knowledgeable and successful, you have to be aware of what you don’t know. You have to decide whether to learn the topic yourself or surround yourself with people who have that knowledge. Awareness and humbleness are key.
