Non-Executive Director and Former HR Director, BBC
Course: BCom, Commerce, 1981
Valerie may be of interest to students with an interest in careers in HR, management and leadership roles.
Valerie is Chair of the Board of the CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development). She is also a Mentor and Adviser to organisations, and a Non-Executive Director at DWP (Department for Work and Pensions). Prior to this she spent over five years at the BBC as Chief HR Officer where she held a position on the BBC Executive Committee and was responsible for the design and implementation of the BBC's HR and Internal Communications strategy.
Before joining the BBC in 2014, Valerie worked for 5 years as Group HR Director at Amey with responsibility for the HR, Communications and Health, Safety, Environment and Assurance strategy for 20,000 employees. During this time she led the people integration of 10,000 employees from acquired company Enterprise into Amey.
She had previously worked as Group HR Director for Steria, based in Paris, and with global responsibility for 20,000 employees. Valerie joined Steria as a result of its acquisition of Xansa, a company she had spent 10 years working for, initially on a part-time basis while bringing up her young family, and latterly as Group HR Director.
Her career started after graduating from the University of Birmingham with a B.Com degree. She joined Selfridges in London as a Graduate Trainee, subsequently moving into the HR department. She then spent 4 years living in the Netherlands and worked at EDS, initially heading up European Recruitment and then becoming HR Director for Northern Europe. She returned to the UK with EDS as head of European Compensation and Benefits and subsequently became UK HR Director.
To seek Valerie's support, apply now to the Alumni Leadership Mentoring programme.
