Janet Cooper is a lawyer and entrepreneur. Janet was one of the first women partners in global law firm Linklaters in 1991 and developed and led their global employee share plans and executive remuneration practice for 20 years, before founding a specialist law firm in 2011 which she transferred to a trust for the employees in 2020.
Janet is a published author with a book on corporate governance, has developed a professional qualification course for the Chartered Governance Institute, and is a recognised leader in executive remuneration, employee share ownership and corporate governance.
Janet is a non-executive director and Chair of the remuneration committee of Nurture Landscapes Holdings and Chair of ProShare, a non-profit organisation promoting employee share ownership. She has been first woman to be the Chair of the RNLI (Lifeboats) (Trustee from 2014-2023) and is the co-founder and Vice Chair Emeritus of Global Equity Organisation.
Janet is a keen supporter of human rights and particularly women’s rights and was on the UK board of UNWomen (the United Nation’s entity which works for gender equality globally) from 2009 to 2016.
Janet has been involved with the University of Roehampton since 2008, first on the advisory board of the Crucible Centre, then in 2010 on the advisory board of the Business School. As well as Vice-Chair of the Council, Janet is the Chair of the University’s Remuneration Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee.
She has a law degree from Leeds University and lives locally in Ealing.
Janet was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to equality, women's empowerment and employee share ownership in the 2017 New Year Honours List.