Board of trustees

Lesley Thompson

Board member

Dr Lesley Thompson joined Elsevier in 2016 as Vice President, Academic & Government Strategic Alliance and moved in 2023 to a business development role for Funders and Governments globally. the UK. Prior to joining Elsevier, Lesley worked for 26 years at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC, the largest of the UK’s 7 Research Councils.

In 2006 she was appointed Research Director, responsible for the strategy and delivery of the scientific programme, with an annual budget of £800 M. As Research Director she was responsible for driving the quality of the research portfolio as well as fostering collaboration with industry. EPSRC’s collaboration with industry grew from 12 to 54% from 1994 to 2015 while the international research standing grew ensuring the portfolio delivered Excellence with Impact. During her time in EPSRC, Lesley introduced a number of innovations including; Ideas Factories, designed to encourage radical thinking with funding available to enact research following a sandpit in a research area; Discipline Hopping enabling academics to take time out in another discipline and cohort based doctoral training growing the investment of 2 centres in 2001 to 115 centres in 2014.

She has always championed early career researchers, interdisciplinary research and diversity. She is a member of the Royal Society Diversity group and in January 2016 was awarded an MBE for services to research. Lesley has a PhD in Biology from the University of Essex and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the same University in 2026 for services to research, inclusion and diversity. She has been a lay member of Keele University Council since 2019. She recently moved to part-time working and is married with 2 children.