Nicky Oppenheimer

At Odgers Ray & Berndtson Nicola Oppenheimer leads the central government practice. She deals with a wide range of senior executive, board and public appointments for government departments, their agencies and non-departmental public bodies. She also specialises in appointments in the arts, heritage, museums and galleries and a number of other associated fields.

After reading law at Queen Mary College, London University, Nicky was called to the Bar. She then left after pupillage to join the Lord Chancellor's Department as a lawyer. Nicky has a wide and varied career in the Civil Service, moving out of her legal specialism to work on judicial appointments and combining her legal background with a personnel focus. She became Head of Personnel in the Lord Chancellor's Department at a time when personnel policies were rapidly developing and changing. For six and a half years she was Head of Corporate Resources and Services, first in the Lord Chancellor's Department, and latterly in the Cabinet Office. In these Departments she headed human resources policy and was responsible for a wide range of senior appointments - as well as finance and other services.

Nicky has particularly close links with the arts world. She is a trustee of The English Concert and the Early Opera Company and sits on the development Boards of the Royal Academy of Music and the London Academy of Music and Drama. She is also Vice-Chairman of the Women of the Year lunch.

Nicky Oppenheimer is a member of the Diversity Council.