Hazel is Senior Programme Manager at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and works in international public health research programmes in Africa. She has worked with LSTM for 10 years and her portfolio includes managing global, multi-million pound programmes, designing and implementing robust governance, financial and management systems, managing national and international multi-disciplinary teams and establishing overseas offices.

Hazel has over 20 years’ experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors; she has provided senior level technical and executive support to elected Leaders and Chief Executive Officers on a range of regeneration issues – economic, social and health related. In addition, she has led on consultation responses at regional, national and European policy level which affected the Liverpool City-region’s socio-economic development.

Her academic background is in socio-economic regeneration and European policy, with a BSc (Hons) in European Regional Development. More recently she achieved an MBA (Distinction) from The University of Liverpool, winning MBA Student of the Year Award in 2015.

Stephen is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) with over 15 years’ experience in the construction and built environment sector, spanning project management, education, and curriculum development. His career has focused on bridging the gap between industry and education, with particular expertise in apprenticeship coaching, internal quality assurance, and curriculum leadership.

Stephen has led collaborative initiatives with key stakeholders including Liverpool City Region, The Women’s Organisation, and the property and construction sector to tackle skills gaps and support underrepresented groups—particularly women, Black and ethnic minority communities, and young people—to access opportunities in the industry.

He has delivered vocational training and qualifications at BTEC, NVQ and CIOB Levels 3–6, and has worked nationally across London, the Midlands, and Yorkshire before relocating to Liverpool. Alongside his work in education, Stephen has hands-on industry experience as a project surveyor and consultant.

He is passionate about raising standards, improving learner outcomes and creating more inclusive, accessible pathways into construction and the built environment.

Ian Hall, a qualified accountant, moved to Merseyside in 1970 to work for the then Birkenhead Borough Council. On its formation in 1974 Ian moved to the new Merseyside County Council. Whilst there he was promoted to an Assistant County Treasurer taking the finance lead role in the implementation of the Council’s economic development policy. On the abolition of the County Council in 1986 Ian became the Treasurer to the Merseyside Probation Service. This involved working with the Home Office as well as other major probation services in England & Wales.

In 2003 Ian retired from working full time. After about 18 months Ian joined the Finance Section at Local Solutions on a part time basis, initially supporting the accountancy function & then as internal auditor. More recently Ian took on the role of Special Advisor to the Chief Executive before retiring in February 2025. Ian then took on a role of Trustee.

Salome Mare-Walsh is a Zimbabwean-born British mental health innovator and the visionary founder of Salowal Limited, an award-winning organisation dedicated to culturally sensitive psychotherapy and corporate wellbeing. Navigating two cultures inspired her commitment to bridging mental health gaps for Black communities by providing culturally informed mental health care nationally and internationally.

Salome has 20 years of NHS experience and recognised credentials as a Cognitive Analytic Therapist (CAT), CAT supervisor and Mental Health Nurse. She has experience of being instrumental in fostering anti-racism and equality in the NHS as a staff network lead with multiple commendations. She sits on the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy (ACAT) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee.

Her leadership and personal journey have propelled Salowal to industry recognition, delivering 5-star rated, accessible services that foster equity. Salome represents a rare combination of clinical expertise, business acumen, and purpose-driven leadership—creating measurable value while addressing critical social needs in mental healthcare accessibility.

Justine Blomeley became the CEO of the Active Partnership for Liverpool City Region in March 2024. She has over 30 years experience of working in various parts of the Public Sector.

After qualifying as a teacher, Justine taught secondary Physical Education and was an Assistant Head of House for 10 years.

In 2003 Justine moved to Children’s Services in a Local Authority as the PE Adviser for 40 schools and also worked with Leisure Services focusing towards preventative methods in tackling health inequalities.

In 2013 Justine joined Sport England as the Relationship Manager for Local Government covering the North West of England and holding some large political relationships.

In 2017 Justine became a Strategic Lead focused on changing the system in order to understand what it would take to move population at scale from being inactive to active with a relentless focus on tackling inequalities.

In 2022 Justine became the Interim Director for the Place Directorate as part of a restructure and transition period of 6 months.

I joined Merseyside Police from Cheshire Constabulary in 2016, having started my police career at Greater Manchester Police.

I have had a varied career so far, starting out in neighbourhood policing as a police constable with GMP and working my way up to the rank of Inspector.

In 2008 I was promoted to Detective Chief Inspector with the Major Incident Team where I led teams of detectives investigating some of the most serious crimes such as murders. I saw first-hand the devastating impact violent crime had on the loved ones of victims and the wider community, and I was passionate about supporting families and putting offenders before the courts.

In 2010 I moved from being a detective back into a uniformed role as Superintendent in charge of partnerships and local policing in Moss Side and Longsight in Manchester. Two years later I returned to the Serious Crime Division as Detective Superintendent until I transferred on promotion to Cheshire Constabulary as Head of Public Protection.

There, I helped introduce a new, more integrated approach with partners who had the shared goal of intervening early to help prevent people from going down the wrong path into a life of crime.

I have maintained links with lots of people in GMP, Cheshire and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit because I love coaching and mentoring people through their careers, as I have benefited from that support myself.

I was delighted to be the Deputy Chief Constable at Merseyside Police. We have gone through extensive changes since I joined in 2016 but everything we have done is about putting the needs of the communities of Merseyside first.

It was always a special place for me when I was growing up nearby in Ormskirk and I do see it as home.

In April 2021, I became the first female Chief Constable of Merseyside Police.

Helen is a social investor and the founder and CEO of Seebohm Hill Ltd, a Liverpool-based social investment consultancy. She spent more than 2 decades working in the financial services industry as an analyst, equity salesperson and investor, mostly specialising in Japanese equities.

Since 2011 Helen has worked with a number of social organisations, social investors and the Cabinet Office in roles involving the measurement and reporting of social value, investment due diligence and research of the social finance market.

She has co-authored a number of papers and a book on social finance and has undertaken detailed research on the social economy of the Liverpool City Region and north west England. Helen is an experienced presenter on social investment and social enterprise.

She is a Visiting Fellow at The Heseltine Institute for Public Policy & Practice, Chair of Governors for Studio@Deyes, member of the Executive Board of AMP SCITT, and a non-executive director of Lydiate Learning Trust.

A native of Cheshire and educated in Macclesfield and then Nottingham Medical School, Bruce worked as a GP in a busy inner city practice in Birkenhead for 35 years where he was the senior partner with overall responsibility for clinical standards within the team and a particular interest in the care of the elderly. He also developed an expertise in cardiovascular disease.

Bruce served on several committees during his career including chairing the local medical committee of GPs and being vice chairman of the local drugs and therapeutics committee. He helped set up the Wirral out of hours service and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2002.

Bruce helped run the local community cardiac clinic and served as a GP lead on cardiology both at Wirral Clinical Commissioning group [CCG] and also as the primary care cardiology lead for the Cheshire and Merseyside clinical network where he helped developed local and regional initiatives on high blood pressure [Hypertension] and stroke prevention.

Outside of work, Bruce is married with two sons, one of whom works in Sheffield as an architect with an interest in social housing and his other son works as a primary school teacher in inner city Liverpool. Bruce’s main pastime is golf and he is a past captain of Royal Liverpool Golf club. He also enjoys walking, gardening and photography.

Jill is a Chartered Accountant, born and raised in Liverpool. Until 2020, she spent her career in the accountancy sector, with the 7th largest UK accountancy firm, RSM (and its predecessor firms). At RSM she was the North West Managing Partner, a member of the firm’s National Leadership Team, a Main Board Director and Chief Operating Officer.

In 2021 Jill became a Trustee of Local Solutions following a 5 month period as a non-executive advisor to the Trustees. She is also a Trustee of Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust and Coleg Cambria and is a non-executive Director of DSW Capital Limited. Jill is a keen football fan and enjoys walking, pilates and paddle boarding.

Elliott is a Lead Paralegal at DWF Law LLP, a global legal business that was founded in Liverpool in 1977. A proud Welshman, Elliott moved to Merseyside in 2014 to study Law LLB, graduating from the University of Liverpool with upper second class honours in 2017.  Following University, he began a journey of progression with DWF, gaining several promotions that would lead him from the position of Administrator in May 2017 to his current role in the Catastrophic Injury department, where he assists on cases that often hold a damages reserve in excess of £10 million. He is set to commence a period of sponsored study in September 2023 and qualify as a solicitor 18 months thereafter. As well as acting as Trustee for Local Solutions, Elliott is a member of the Ashley Rogers Memorial Committee (ARM), which organises the annual ‘Dash for Ash’ 5km run in his native county of Pembrokeshire.

Outside of work, Elliott enjoys running (or attempting to), walking through Sefton Park, or reading.

With over 20 years’ experience in retail, facilities and property management, Karl is a customer focussed, client experience professional having worked at Manchester Arndale during its redevelopment and latterly, as Centre Director for Savills at Runcorn Shopping Centre, where he delivered a strong community focussed shopping centre whilst creating a bespoke customer experience.  Karl has worked with Merseyrail delivering customer experience across 67 stations and was responsible for over 400 staff. He believes in delivering strong stakeholder engagement as well as making a difference to people and places.