Heather Cooper - Business in the Community

Heather Cooper was formerly the Chief People Officer for the FTSE 100 Financial Services company Hargreaves Lansdown (HL). There she had responsibility across the people, culture, colleague engagement, reward, corporate social responsibility (CSR), talent and inclusion, and diversity agendas.

She built a team from scratch to nearly 50 colleagues to deliver high-quality interventions across the People Strategy. Heather also held a number of corporate governance roles within HL: a member of the Group Executive Committee, a board member of HL Asset Management, Chair of Reward Governance Committee, Chair of HL Tech, and a regular attendee of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Outside of HL, Heather joined the board of the West of England Combined Authority, working with other local business leaders and politicians to shape the local COVID-19 response and the post-lockdown industrial strategy. The activity focuses on encouraging a region where ideas flourish and where businesses grow, powering innovative and creative businesses and the highly skilled population that exists across the West of England.

Prior to these roles, Heather has held senior positions with Marks and Spencer, Deloitte has run her own Talent Consultancy, and is a qualified and experienced Executive Coach and developer of top teams.

Heather is married to Andrew and they have two children – both of whom are at university studying Biochemistry. In her spare time, she enjoys mountain biking, traveling, watching movies, candle-making, and socialising with family and friends.