Liesl Elder directs the University Development Office, overseeing philanthropic fundraising for the University across the academic divisions, museums and libraries. Her teams work worldwide, including the University’s offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. She came to Oxford in in 2011 to lead the Oxford Thinking Campaign, managing its relaunch from a £1.25bn to a £3bn campaign, and seeing it though to a successful conclusion last year. The Oxford team won the 2020 CASE Platinum Award for Best Practice in Fundraising.

Liesl has worked in educational fundraising since 1993, beginning her career at the US liberal arts colleges Carleton College and Oberlin College before serving as Campaign Director for Santa Clara University in California. She moved to the UK in 2004 to become Director of Development and Communications at Durham University, followed by a few years in Scotland as Director of Development at the University of Edinburgh.