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Professor Dame Janet Beer
Professor Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool

Professor Dame Janet Beer

Professor Dame Janet Beer took up post as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in February 2015, having formerly been Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University. 

Dame Janet is President of UUK, a Trustee of the British Council, a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel and a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council from 1 April 2018

She was awarded a Damehood for her services to higher education and equality and diversity in the New Year’s Honours list on 1 January 2018. She chairs the Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Board and is a member of the Liverpool Science Park Board and the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board. In June 2017 she was appointed by the Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram as the adviser on Higher Education for the Liverpool City Region. 

She has an established record of research and scholarship in late nineteenth and early twentieth century American literature and culture.

Carol Costello

Carol Costello joined the University of Liverpool in September 2010 as Director of HR (HRD) responsible for HR, Payroll, Organisational Development (OD) and Pensions for approximately 5,500 staff. Prior to this she was the HRD for Lancashire County Council; managing teams delivering, OD, Learning and Development, Human Resources, Payroll and Health and Safety Services for 45,000 employees, (over half of them in the 645 Lancashire schools) and a number of external partners. As the Strategic Director of Corporate Services at Rotherham Council, she had responsibility for Corporate and Customer Services and for one of the early strategic partnerships between a Council and the private sector (BT).

She has worked around the country in local government, further and higher education and big public industries and her career has mainly been spent in HR and general management roles. One of her most interesting roles was running the highways and environmental services unit in Knowsley Council – the first female ‘non’ engineer to do the job. Her ‘claims to fame’ are that she is famously known as the ‘wheelie bin queen’ in Merseyside after introducing a new bin collection service; met Dolly Parton through the US version of the Athena Awards (and was part of a team that worked with her to introduce every young child in Rotherham to books) and; spent a morning showing Prince Andrew around some of the economic sites of Rotherham.

Carol is currently studying for her Doctorate (in HE); she is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development; holds an MA from Durham University and diplomas in coaching and mentoring.  She has extensive experience in leading change and performance improvement programmes and is also an experienced alternative/holistic therapist.

Carol Costello University of Liverpool Director of HR
Carol Costello, Director of Human Resources, University of Liverpool