Kirsty Jenkinson

Kirsty Jenkinson
Director, Markets & Enterprise Program

Kirsty Jenkinson is the Director of the Markets and Enterprise Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI), which focuses on harnessing markets and enterprise to expand opportunity and protect the environment.

The program has two key objectives. New Ventures is WRI’s center for environmental entrepreneurship helping environmentally-focused small and medium enterprises in six key emerging markets compete in a global economy. Environmental Intelligence for Tomorrow’s Markets seeks to influence how companies and financial markets identify, evaluate and manage environmental risks and opportunities and includes the Aqueduct project for measuring and mapping water risk. Kirsty also chairs WRI’s Business Group to co-ordinate the Institute’s activities with the private sector.

A British national, Kirsty spent the first six years of her career at Goldman Sachs in London working in Fixed Income sales and research analyzing corporate securities. She moved to UK-based fund manager, F&C Asset Management, in 2001 to pursue her long-term career goal: encouraging the creation of sustainable, responsible, successful businesses and financial markets. At F&C, Kirsty was a Director in the Governance & Sustainable Investment team and was at the forefront of analyzing how environmental, social and governance issues impact business. Using the influence of F&C’s $150bn of investments, the Governance & Sustainable Investment team encouraged companies around the world to address a diverse range of issues, including climate change, biodiversity loss, corruption, human rights and corporate governance. Kirsty holds a M.A. in International History from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Kirsty is an avid sports fan, with a particular interest in cricket, and is a keen traveler who enjoys the big outdoors.

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Latest Post

Submitted on May 2, 2012
This piece originally appeared in the Guardian Sustainable Business. In 1992, heads of state converged on Rio for the Earth Summit, a bright moment that seemed to herald a new era for sustainable development. Bold speeches were given, important treaties signed. Saving the planet was cast as a moral imperative. Multilateral institutions would lead the way. Twenty years later, the world looks...

More Blog Posts

Submitted on March 8, 2012
This piece originally appeared in Ethical Corporation. There is a growing trend for big companies to use sustainable concepts as core business drivers For decades, many companies have typically...
In Aqueduct | Submitted on September 19, 2011
This piece, co-authored by WRI’s Kirsty Jenkinson and Coca-Cola’s Joe Rozza, originally appeared on The Guardian Sustainable Business Blog. Water, or the lack of it, is never far from...
Submitted on April 22, 2011
Ready to scale up, six environmental entrepreneurs from around the world make their case to investors in New York City. The inaugural New Ventures Global Investor Forum, held last week in New York...