Our board

HelpAge International is governed by a strong and diverse board of trustees. At least six of our board members are representatives of our affiliates. 

Cynthia Cox Roman (Chair)

Cynthia Cox Roman is Chief Executive Officer of WIT Consulting, LLC, a strategic research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC.

WIT Consulting helps businesses, government agencies and non-profit organisations understand their target audience, develop effective communications and spot new areas for growth and innovation.

Tilak de Zoysa (Vice Chair)

Tilak de Zoysa is the Chief Executive Officer of a large commercial conglomerate in Sri Lanka.

His business have connections at the highest level of government in Sri Lanka and across the whole South Asia region.

He is also Chairman of HelpAge Sri Lanka

David Causer, FCA

David is a non-executive director and audit committee chairman of Schroder Income Growth Fund plc, an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange. He is a qualified chartered accountant and a member of the Securities Institute.

David has held a number of senior positions within financial services organisations, including as finance director of Mercury Asset Management Group plc and as a managing director of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers until 2001.

He was finance director of The British Red Cross Society until December 2007. He is a trustee of a number of charities and of a pension fund.

Mathew Cherian

Mathew has worked in the area of rural development with cooperatives, in association with the National Dairy Development Board. He was a consultant to voluntary agencies and to the National Wastelands Development Board.

His further assignments include the post of Director, Oxfam, UK and India, Programme Director, South Asia, Plan International, and Country Representative, Charities Aid Foundation.

He is the Founder of Association of Third Sector Researchers in India, Resource Mobilization Network in India, Campaign for Human Rights (Dalits and Tribals), and CAF India. Mathew serves full time as Chief Executive of HelpAge India.

Silvia Gascon

Silvia is currently the Head of the Masters in Management of Gerontology Services, at Isalud University, Argentina and a member of the High Council of the University. She lectures the Specialisation Course on Health Management for the Elderly in the Pan American Health Organization and is a visiting Professor at various National and foreign Universities.

Silvia is a Member of the Regional Advisory Committee on Aging and Health Americas of the Pan American Health Organization. She also leads a project on Age Friendly Cities of the World Health Organization, in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires and Resistencia, Chaco Argentina. She has written extensively about ageing, including "Ageing and Poverty in Argentina". 

Pham Hoai Giang

Pham Hoai Giang is a women's activist and Head of the International Relations Department of the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU). 

The VWU is a large organisation which is taking the lead on ageing and gender issues in Vietnam. It has also been a valued partner of HelpAge International for more than ten years.

Cho Hyunse

President of HelpAge Korea, Mr Cho has been instrumental in promoting initiatives like the ASEAN Homecare programme and other regional initiatives like the OPA leaders regional event and supporting links for KOICA and other Korean donors.

He has been instrumental in providing direct funding for small projects in Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Ageing, Seoul City and member of the Policy Forum for the Elderly and the Policy Department for the Elderly in Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Korea.

Eric M Kimani

Eric Kimani is former chief executive of one of Kenya's largest state enterprises. He now runs a number of his own businesses.

He holds degrees in Accountancy and Law and is currently chairman of HelpAge Kenya. 

Eric is one of the top philanthropists in East Africa having founded the equally successful Palmhouse Foundation an education trust that finances the secondary education of deserving students and mentors them through life.

John Kingston

John is the Founder and Director of Venturesome (2001-11), a company which pioneers social investment in the UK. He was previously a director of Save the Children UK, and before that at 3i plc.

He was also Chair of the BIG Social Investment Committee (2011-12) and of the NCVO Commission on Tax Incentives for Social Investment (2011-12).

Currently, he is Chair of the Association of Charitable Foundations, a senior advisor at Social Finance Ltd and non-executive director of Big Society Capital and of the European Venture Philanthropy Association. 

Laura Machado

Laura Machado currently holds the position of International Coordinator to the United Nations for the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG). She is also Executive Director of InterAge Consulting in Gerontology. She was the Latin American Regional Representative for the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) between 1997-2009.

Sanja Miloradovic

Executive Director and co-founder of Lastavica, an NGO and HelpAge International affiliate founded in 1996 as a joint project of the Autonomous Women's Centre in Belgrade and Oxfam. 

Lastavica offers community services, economic support and training to refugees, internally displaced women and other marginalised groups in Serbia such as older people, children, socially excluded people.

Mike Wade

Mike Wade started his career at the development charity Oxfam, where he worked for 17 years in a variety of roles – most recently as Head of Individual Fundraising. After a further three years at WaterAid, he joined the National Deaf Children's Society in July 2008 as Director of Fundraising and Communications. As well as helping and advising HelpAge International, Mike is also a Trustee for Childlife, Age International and the Institute of Fundraising, where he also chairs their Policy Advisory Board.

Isabella Aboderin

Isabella is a senior research scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, leading the programme on ageing and development in sub-Saharan Africa.

She is also a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford, UK.

Professor Du Peng

Professor Du Peng is Director of the Gerontology Institute at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He is an academic and activist on ageing in China.