Elizabeth James

Elizabeth is a Partner and leads the Education Practice.

She is an academic appointment specialist with particular experience of supporting Universities in the attraction and appointment of Heads of School/Department and Professorial/Research staff across all disciplines. She has particular experience of managing and delivering projects that have a significant stakeholder or international focus to them, including the appointment of international academics.

Elizabeth has worked for the Odgers Berndtson Group for over 10 years and has a personal interest in issues of diversity within the workforce. She is supported by her PA Lisa Waite.

Prior to working in executive search, Elizabeth was part of a large Unitary Council’s Corporate Policy Team, managing projects relating to equality and diversity, community consultation, and inspection. She has also spent a year in Brussels working as a researcher for an economic development consultancy.

I am passionate about attracting talent to organisations that will have an impact on their success, which in turn has an impact upon the world that we live in. Equity, diversity and inclusion is an incredibly important aspect of that. In one sense, this is about supporting my clients in enabling better representation, but it is also about finding people who will make a conscious and concerted contribution to ED&I in their new role.

Elizabeth has a BA Hons from the University of Manchester. She loves literature and the arts which manifests itself in her being a voracious reader and theatre-goer. She is a trustee of one of the UK’s largest producing theatres, but also spends an inordinate amount of time walking her dogs and ferrying her children to various sporting activities.