Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees

Elected Officers

Mary Burd (Chair)

• I am the current Chair and have lived in Camden for nearly 60 years. I was elected to the Age UK Camden (AUC)  Board in 2016 having previously been on the Strategic Board and chair of Aging Better in Camden. I am a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist and worked for the NHS in Tower Hamlets and East London for 30 years. While there I became head of psychological services for the TH Primary Care Trust and Director of Psychological Therapies of the East London NHS Foundation Trust. In 2009 I was awarded an MBE for services to healthcare in East London. On my retirement I became a Governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation trust.  As an older person living in Camden I am passionate about the work of AUC and the wide range of services it provides to support older people in the community . 

Marika Freris (Vice Chair)

• With a Biochemistry degree from Imperial College and five years background in basic science and clinical research, I applied this knowledge to the commercial sector through moving into the communications arena. Following working for three different communication agencies at Director and Managing Director levels, I set up my own agency in 2000. I sold the company in 2014 to a FTSE 250 company and following a three year earn out period and then retired from the business in 2017. During my working life and subsequent to it, I have always been involved with charities. Since 2004 I have been a Trustee on and Ambassador for a number of charities, including Action on Addiction, International Service, The Funding Network, SPEAR, CPU and chair of the FHS Parents’ Association. I have been a volunteer for Age UK Camden for 11 years as a Befriender and on the Age UK Camden Board of Trustees for eight years of which I am currently Vice Chair. I have lived in Camden for 35 years.

Bonny Ho (Treasurer)

• Bonny is a Chartered Accountant with many years of experience in financial management, internal control system design and monitoring, and business consultancy.  Bonny spends a fair amount of his time to help charitable organisations in caring for older people, education and sports sectors.

Alison Kelly

• I am absolutely delighted to be a Trustee at AgeUK Camden. It is an amazing and worthwhile organisation which serves, and improves the lives of so many Camden residents. I know its values of kindness, courage, hope and justice truly drive the organisation. On my long professional journey I have been an advocate for parents of children with special needs, I managed all the services for children and young people for a local council, and was Head of Governance at the Audit Commission.
  
  I have also chaired the governing body of five Camden schools, been a Trustee of five local charities, including currently chairing one for young people with learning differences, and I was a Camden councillor for eight years. As a councillor, I chaired the scrutiny committee holding Camden Council and local health bodies to account for the effectiveness of their adult social care and health provision. And I was also Camden’s Older People’s Champion. I have five wonderful grandchildren, three amazing children and a hugely tolerant partner. I am so proud and fortunate to be an AUC trustee.

Glyn Clark

• After a 40 year career in finance, I have embarked on activities that provide services to older people. These interests include Eden Park Homes which owns and manages a large mobile home park that is home to some 120 residents aged 55 and over; and Radfield Home Care which provides domiciliary care services across a number of London boroughs, primarily Camden and Islington. Supporting older people through these services has highlighted to me the work that Age UK Camden, perform to support people in the community

Rachel Palin

• I joined the Board of Age UK Camden in the Autumn 2022 following my personal experiences looking after older family members and in previous volunteering roles. Born, bred and still living in Camden, I am keen to do what I can to keep the people of the borough feeling connected, active and engaged in later life, and working with this well established and important local charity felt like the right place to do so.

  Although my background is as a TV Producer, I feel I have many transferable and valuable skills to offer Age UK Camden including the ability to communicate clearly, motivate and manage teams and think creatively when it comes to developing and implementing ideas. I am also a fully trained yoga teacher so recognise the importance of physical well being in an aging population. I am very much looking forward to working with the Age UK Board, team and volunteers to ensure the charity stays vibrant, relevant and true to its core values of kindness, courage, hope and justice.

Rabia Khan

• Rabia Khan, PhD, MBA is the founder and CEO of Serna Bio, a YC-backed biotech building the next generation of small molecules targeting RNA. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the UK Dementia Research Institute, and an advisor to No Label Ventures, a fund investing in immigrant founders in the UK and EU and an advisor to The First Thirty VC fund.
  
  Prior to founding Serna Bio, she has experience building scientific teams and delivering commercial deals, at the intersection of machine learning, biology and drug discovery. Rabia was Managing Director, Discovery Sciences at Sensyne Health plc (now - Arctoris Data) where she established the scientific strategy, built the machine learning and clinical teams by recruiting and leading a team of 50 machine learning and clinical researchers, delivering on a number of significant pharma partnerships including Bayer, BMS, Roche and Alexion.
  
  She also held senior roles at BenevolentAI and Meta (acquired by Chan Zuckerberg BioHub). At Meta (previously Sciencescape), she was pivotal in the partnership with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to acquire horizon-scanning technology that used NLP to research the biomedical corpus. At BenevolentAI, she helped shape the discovery strategy for several programs, led the Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Glioblastoma drug discovery programmes and served as the interface between the technical and biological teams.

Jennifer Pemberton

• I’m delighted to have joined Age UK Camden as a Trustee from December 2024 and look forward to deepening my connection with the charity.

  My professional background is in organisational change, with a focus on empowering individuals and leaders to navigate the challenges and opportunities that change brings. I spent much of my career at the BBC, supporting transformation at scale and now run my own business, helping organisations build resilience and capability for the future.

  I've been a Telefriend with Age UK Camden since lockdown, forming a lasting bond through my weekly calls and appreciating the charity’s knowledgeable and kind support. I’m sometimes saddened by society’s treatment of older people, often uplifted by people’s kindness, and passionately driven to support Age UK Camden’s vital work for change.

  I have lived in the area for 25 years with my husband, raising my children here. You’ll find me walking the dog on the Heath and Primrose Hill, doing yoga in the library, singing in a local choir and braving the Ladies’ Pond year-round. As you can tell, my life is deeply rooted in our local community.