Julie Mellor
Dame Julie Thérèse Mellor DBE is Chair of Demos, Chair of the Young Foundation, Chair of the Federation of Industry Sector Skills and Standards, and a Trustee of Involve, Nesta and Clore Social Leadership.
She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 for services to equality. As Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission she is credited with transforming a law enforcement body into a catalyst for change on equal pay, pregnancy discrimination and flexible working.
Mellor was born in 1957 and studied Experimental Psychology at Brasenose College, Oxford where she is now an honorary fellow. Between 1979 and 1981, she was Eleanor Emerson Fellow in Industrial Relations Education at Cornell University.
Prior to her appointment as Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission her career was in Human Resources, working for Royal Dutch Shell, the Greater London Council, the Inner London Education Authority, TSB and as Corporate Human Resources Director for British Gas. She worked as a consultant on employment and consumer issues until 1999.
As of May 2019, she is currently Chair of the Federation for Industry Sector Skills and Standards.
Following her time at the EOC she was a partner in the health team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and pioneered citizens' juries as part of the firm's contribution to the public sector. She was the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England where she increased investigations of complaints about public services tenfold from circa 450 a year to 5000 a year and worked with Parliament to use the learning from complaints to hold government to account for improving public services.
However, during her time at the PHSO, it should be noted that there was a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction from complainants regarding the handling of complaints. Much of this was hidden from the public through the PHSO having almost full discretion on what information was published & on what it reported to the Quality Care Commission who had oversight, but without any powers, over the PHSO. Ultimately she was forced to resign though the chair Robert Behrens who came across from the Adjudicator for Higher Education ombudsman, is himself not without similar criticisms.
Mellor has served as a non-executive board member on several bodies: Commission for Racial Equality ; Fatherhood Institute ; National Consumer Council, Employer's Forum on Disability, the Green Alliance and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.Honours
In 2003, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Anglia Ruskin University. She was made an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford and a Fellow of the City & Guilds of London Institute.
