We are sharing some very sad news. Jenny Oldfield, who many of you will know from her years with us, passed away on Friday June 26th following a battle with colon cancer.
Jenny's impact at the Global Partnership, as a colleague and as a friend, is core to who we are and how we show up in the world. She was deeply curious and interested in people, learning who they were and what mattered to them. Her instinct to see people clearly and her focus on making them shine were the root of everything she built with us.
Jenny shaped the Global Partnership’s presence and personality. She was the architect of our external positioning and the idea that we exist to lift up the work and causes of our partners and colleagues, and to make room for the diversity of voice and perspective that gives a partnership its strength. That sits underneath everything we do.
That thinking is most clearly felt with the Global Data Festival. From the start, Jenny's vision was for a festival, not a conference. She built something with color and energy and surprise in it - the kind of gathering people left uplifted and not just informed. She dreamed it up before the first edition in Bristol, then watched it truly find its feet a few years later in Uruguay. She was unable to join this year's edition in Nairobi, but her spirit was everywhere.
Jenny meant a great deal to so many of us. She was someone who put a huge amount of energy into including and lifting up the people around her. She cared in particular about supporting young people, helping them find their footing and their voice, and making sure their ideas and opinions are heard. She made a point of drawing everyone in, whoever and wherever they were.
Her energy would lift any mood and she always met people with an abundance of warmth. She brought humanity and creativity into anything she did, and she brought joy and connection into our team that will feel her absence and miss her incredibly. We will always remember her generosity and the way she created community wherever she went, and are honored to have had her as a colleague and a friend.
Our thoughts are with her husband and son, and family and friends.
If you wish and are able to, contributions can be made to Jenny’s son’s college fund here.
The family is asking for privacy at this time. If you'd like to pass on your condolences, share a memory, or a photo, you may do so on the memorial board below.
Messages will appear here and everything shared will also be compiled into a book for Jenny's family, in August. If you'd rather your message go only to her family, there's an option to keep it private.