Private sector: Likierman started as a management trainee with English Sewing Cotton in Manchester, qualifying as a management accountant. He later moved to his family's firm, Qualitex Ltd, running a textile plant in Germany and was then Managing Director of the Overseas Division. He later started his own book business, Ex Libris Ltd. Academic: Likierman was a faculty member at the University of Leeds and has been a faculty member at London Business School from 1974–1976, 1979–1993 and since 2004. His positions have included Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor of Accounting and Financial Control; Founding Director of the Executive MBA Programme; Director of the Institute of Public Sector Management; Acting Dean and Dean. He was succeeded as dean by François Ortalo-Magné in August 2017. His publications - for academics and practitioners - have been mainly in the fields of public finance and performance measurement.. His current research, on managerial judgment, was outlined in the January/February 2020 edition of the Harvard Business Review. Government: Likierman was Head of the Government Accountancy Service, Managing Director of the Financial Management, Reporting and Audit Directorate of HM Treasury and its Principal Finance Officer. He had earlier worked in the Cabinet Office as a member of the Central Policy Review Staff. He was knighted in 2001 for his work on moving UK Government finances from a cash to an accruals basis through Resource Accounting and Budgeting. Professional: Likierman advised five Parliamentary Select Committees on public expenditure and control issues, was President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and Chairman of a government study on professional liability. In the field of corporate governance, he was a member of the Cadbury Committee, Chairman of the group which compiled code for central government departments and one of six international experts appointed by Kofi Annan, when Secretary-General of the United Nations, to advise on their corporate governance. Non-executive roles: Likierman is the senior National Independent Director of Times Newspapers Ltd and a non-executive director of listed insurance company Beazley Group and of Monument Bank. His previous non-executive roles have included Chairman of the market research firm MORI Ltd, the Economists' Bookshop Group and the United Kingdom'sNational Audit Office, Deputy Chairman of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and Director of the Bank of England and Barclays Bank plc. In addition to his knighthood, Likierman has been awarded honorary degrees from four universities, the CIMA Gold Medal and was non-executive of the year in the public/not-for-profit sector. The Library of the London Business School was named the Likierman Library in recognition of the joint efforts of Likierman and his wife Meira in fundraising for the School during his period as Dean.
Personal life
Likierman was married to Meira who died in 2019. He has two step-children, Ruth and James, and five grandchildren.
