Diana Fox Carney (née Fox; born 1965) is a British-Canadian economist and climate policy expert who is the spouse of the prime minister of Canada as the wife of Mark Carney, the 24th Prime Minister of Canada since 2025.

Specializing in developing nations, she is active in various environmental and social justice causes. She has published research and has collaborated with multiple international think tanks. She has been described as a "widely respected expert on global climate and energy policy",[2][3][4] serving as a board member for numerous not-for-profit organisations. In 2012 she was referred to as an "eco-warrior" by The Daily Telegraph.[5]

Early life and education

Diana Fox Carney is the daughter of Christopher Fox and Jennifer Atkinson who managed an estate when she was born.[6] She spent her earliest years in the Quarwood House, a Gothic mansion near Stow-on-the-Wold, that was later purchased by John Entwistle of The Who.[6] The family then purchased a lucrative pig farm,[7] while Diana and her sister attended Oxford High School for Girls.[6] She then attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire.[8] Her sister Tania would go on to marry Robin Cayzer, 3rd Baron Rotherwick.[1]

She has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a master's degree in agricultural economics from the University of Oxford and an MA in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania.[9] In the 1990s, she was one of the stronger skaters on the women's team of the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, where she met her future husband Mark Carney, who played goaltender for the men's team.[10]

Career

Fox Carney has held senior roles at think tanks in Canada and the UK, focused primarily on energy and climate. She has worked as an agricultural researcher in Africa, for the charity IPPR, and served as the executive director of Pi Capital in the UK.[11][12] Fox Carney has served on the boards of Save the Children, Friends of the Royal Academy, Ashden, ClientEarth, the Shell Foundation, and BeyondNetZero.[1]

In 2013, Carney spoke to a Canadian Parliament’s finance committee about the increasing gap between the rich and poor globally, noting that two-thirds of people were living in countries where the gap had grown over the previous decade.[13]

In April 2013, Carney, who was vice president of research at the Canada 2020 think tank at the time, contributed a paper to one of its conferences supporting carbon pricing dialogue. Later that month, she made an appearance on CBC News Network's Power & Politics to discuss the issue and addressed stories in the British media by stressing that she was her own person with her own ideals separate from her husband.[14][15] After leaving Canada 2020, she became the London-based Institute for Public Policy Research's director of strategy and engagement, a position she left by 2025.[16]

Fox Carney has been a senior advisor alongside Gerald Butts at Eurasia Group since May 2021.[17] In October 2021, Fox Carney was appointed as a strategic adviser by Willis Towers Watson in its award-winning Climate Resilience Hub.[18][19]

Personal life

Carney met her husband, Mark,[1] while at the University of Oxford.[20] The couple married in 1994,[16] while Mark was finishing his doctoral thesis.[21] They have four children and lived in Toronto before moving to the Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood of Ottawa and then moving to London in 2013.[22] One of their daughters, Cleo Carney, introduced her father at the Liberal Party convention in 2025. They moved back to Ottawa when Carney left his role at the Bank of England in 2020.[23]

In 2012, Carney caught the attention of the British press with The Daily Telegraph labelling her as an "eco-warrior" for expressed sympathy with the anti-banking occupy movement stating "global financial institutions are rotten or inadequate".[5] In 2013, she received criticism after publicly stating her husband's $7,700/week housing allowance was insufficient.[7][24]

Published works

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Skoll Foundation. "Diana Fox Carney". Skoll. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  2. ^ ""Climate and Development Policy" with Diana Fox Carney". Oxford Society for International Development. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  3. ^ "Diana Fox Carney: Climate Change: Progress to Date and Challenges Ahead". The Marlburian Club. 30 November 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  4. ^ "Diana Fox Carney, Climate Policy Expert, Joins Eurasia Group as Senior Advisor". Eurasia Group. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  5. ^ a b Swaine, Jon (26 November 2012). "New Bank of England Governor Mark Carney's wife: An eco-warrior who says banks are rotten". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Kenber, Billy (1 December 2012). "Marlborough's powerful wives' club". The Times and The Sunday Times. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  7. ^ a b Sarah Boesveld (26 March 2013). "Diana Carney, wife of Mark Carney, angers U.K. with housing woes tweet". National Post.
  8. ^ "The Good, the Bad and the Very Bad with Diana Fox Carney". 10th Anniversary Lecture Series. Marlborough College Malaysia. 20 October 2022.
  9. ^ "Ten facts about Diana Carney, wife of the new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney". The Telegraph. 27 November 2012.
  10. ^ Walker, Tim (1 December 2012). "How the new Bank of England governor Mark Carney wooed his wife". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  11. ^ The Shaw Centre (19 April 2023). "The Net-Zero Leadership Summit". Canada2020.
  12. ^ "Diana Carney". Policy Options. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  13. ^ "Education, children and health key to reducing income inequality: Diana Carney". iPolitics. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  14. ^ "Bank governor Carney's wife defends 'separate opinions'". CBC. 19 April 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  15. ^ "The Net-Zero Leadership Summit". Canada 2020. 19 April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  16. ^ a b Stutsman, Samantha (12 March 2025). "Who Is Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Wife? All About Diana Fox Carney". People.com. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  17. ^ Roth, Gregory (3 May 2021). "Diana Fox Carney, Climate Policy Expert, Joins Eurasia Group as Senior Advisor". GZERO Media (Press release). EurasiaGroup. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021.
  18. ^ Norris, Ben (25 October 2021). "WTW appoints sustainability leader Fox Carney to resilience hub". Commercial Risk. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  19. ^ Carus, Felicity (25 October 2021). "Willis Towers Watson appoints Diana Fox Carney as strategic adviser on sustainable business and the climate transition". Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (Press release). GlobeNewswire.
  20. ^ Belluz, Julia (21 April 2011). "One-on-One with Mark Carney". Reader's Digest. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  21. ^ Naman Trivedi (10 March 2025). "Who Is Diana Carney? New Canada PM Mark Carney's Wife: All On Their Marriage And Children". TimesNowNews. Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited – via The Times Network.
  22. ^ Scoffield, Heather (25 January 2008). "Mark Carney takes up his mission [March 30, 2009 update]". The Globe and Mail: B1, B4–5. Archived from the original (print, online news report) on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  23. ^ Seal, Thomas (6 January 2025). "Carney, Freeland and Cabinet Ministers Are Among the Contenders to Succeed Trudeau". BNN Bloomberg.
  24. ^ "Carney's wife's quip about London housing raises ire". CBC. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
No tags for this post.