Elizabeth Paris

Elizabeth Paris DL has been a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire since 2011. She convenes the Lieutenancy team focused on the ‘Science Vale’ and Greater Didcot and is the Lieutenancy’s link to Didcot and the surrounding area. She holds the Lieutenancy’s place-based funds brief for the County.

After graduating from the University of Oxford in 1982, Elizabeth spent twenty years in investment banking at JP Morgan. She then began a portfolio career, working to support vulnerable young people and to increase the financial inclusion of women, especially in emerging economies. Current roles include Consultant at the IFC, World Bank, and Associate Fellow at The University of Oxford Said Business School. She has delivered training to banks and to women entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, US and the Middle East, and was the University of Oxford lead for the Goldman Sachs Foundation ‘10,000 Women’ programmes in China.

Elizabeth is currently Chair of the Didcot Powerhouse Fund, a donor advised fund, which she co-founded in 2021; a Patron of charity SOFEA, which works with vulnerable young people, following six years as a Trustee, and a member of the Grants Panel of the Step Change Fund. Previously, Elizabeth has been the Director of Common Purpose, Oxfordshire; Chair of the Oxford Playhouse and of the Select Committee on Affordable Housing in Oxford; a Charity Mentor, a Governor of what is now Activate Learning, and a Trustee of Be Free Young Carers and Oxfordshire Artweeks Educational Trust.

Elizabeth lives in Longworth with her husband, Adam, and five alpacas.