The son of a stockbroker, Hendry was educated at Rugby School, Warwickshire and the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) degree[2] in Business Studies in 1981.

He unsuccessfully contested the Central Scotland seat of Clackmannan at the 1983 general election where he came third, finishing 9,988 votes behind the sitting Labour MP Martin O'Neill.

He was appointed as the vice chairman of the Conservative Party in 1995 by John Major, in which capacity he remained until he lost his seat, representing part of the Peak District, at the 1997 general election when he was defeated by Labour's Tom Levitt by 8,791 votes.

He was re-elected to parliament at the 2001 general election for the East Sussex seat of Wealden following the retirement of the Conservative MP Geoffrey Johnson Smith.

Five months later he was announced as the new Chairman of Forewind, the offshore wind farms joint venture,[4] replacing Lord Deben who had resigned the chairmanship in September 2012 when he became Chair of the Committee on Climate Change.

[7] In July 2013, it became known that Hendry had secured a job as adviser to the Atlantic Supergrid Corporation which plans to import power to the UK via an undersea cable from Iceland.

[9] Hendry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to UK trade and investment.

Following the collapse of LC&F, administrators named Hendry as one of thirteen people they were intending to sue in order to recoup £178 million of investors funds.