Our ambassadors

Isabella Aboderin is Senior Research Scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, where she leads on Ageing and Development in sub-Saharan Africa. She served as a Trustee of HelpAge International until 2018, and previously worked at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, the WHO Unit on Ageing and the Lifecourse, and at the International Institute on Health and Ageing at Bristol. Isabella is a visiting associate professor at the University of Southampton, Regional Chair for Africa of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, a board member of the Population Reference Bureau and UN International Institute on Ageing, technical adviser to the Global Commission on Ageing in Developing Countries and a member of the African Union Working Group on Rights of Older People.

Nicolas Barr is a professor of public economics at the London School of Economics and the author of numerous books and articles including The Economics of the Welfare State ​and Reforming Pensions: a short guide (with Peter Diamond). Professor Barr is known globally for his wide-ranging policy work, particularly on pensions and higher education finance, including spells at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He has advised governments across the world, served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Demographic Shifts and on Ageing Society, and is currently on the Presidential Commission on Reform of the Pension System in Chile.

Silvia Gascón is the headsilvia gascon of the Active Aging and Longevity Center, and secretary of the Board of Governors and professor in Management of Gerontology Services at Isalud University, Argentina.

Silvia advises a range of institutions both public and private, as well as local government authorities on the development of the World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Cities project. She is also a global ambassador of HelpAge International, and was for ten years a board member of the organisation.

In recent years Silvia has consulted for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations Development Program, HelpAge International and has advised the governments of Chile, Cuba and Peru on issues of ageing, age-friendly cities and management of services to older people.

Silvias is a founding member of the Isalud Foundation, the Platense Women’s Network and the La Plata Major Network, and she is also editor of the newspaper Lazos de la red mayor.

Pham Thi Hoai Giang works for the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council. She previously worked with the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) for over 30 years where she was a presidium member from 1997-2012.

Her career in socio-political and economic empowerment of women brought her and VWU to partner with HelpAge International for the rights and benefits of older women. Pham was a board member of HelpAge from 2008-2016.

Pham directed the model of inter-generational self-help clubs in Vietnam between 2010-2012. The project has been suuccesful and replicated nationwide. The Vietnam Elderly Association awarded her a commemorative medal for the care and promotion of the role of the elderly in Vietnam in December 2017.

Mark Gorman spent his working life in the field of international development. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in history he began his career by teaching in West Africa and subsequently worked for a number of international development agencies including ActionAid and VSO. He spent more than 30 years with HelpAge International, fulfilling a number of roles, in particular leading of the organisation’s policy and advocacy activity. In 2008 he was awarded an MBE for his services to international development. He is a past member of the boards of HelpAge India and HelpAge USA, and a former Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. He has also maintained his lifelong interest in local history with the recent completion of a PhD at the University of London.

President of HelpAge Korea, Mr Cho Hyunse, has been playing a pivotal role in building Older People’s Associations for the development of self-help groups in Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. He has been instrumental in promoting regional initiatives for age care policies including influencing governments to turn their focus to community care in ASEAN member countries.

Cho Hyunse was involved in consultation work for the Social Welfare Labour and Migrant Workers Division, ASEAN Secretariat in 2010. He has been a board member of Korea NGO Council for Overseas Cooperation since 2011 and a member of the Consultation Committee of Human Rights Policy at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea since 2015. Cho Hyunse was a board member of HelpAge International between 2010 and 2018, and joined ASEM Global Ageing Center in Korea as a board member in 2018.

In 2017 Dr Alexandre Kalache was reappointed co-president of the International Longevity Centre-Global Alliance (ILC-GA), a 17-country consortium of think-tanks on ageing policy, with consultative status to the United Nations. He additionally serves as president of the International Longevity Centre-Brazil (ILC -BR) which he inaugurated in his city of birth, Rio de Janeiro, in 2012.

Dr Kalache was a founding board member of HelpAge International. He has been a key player on ageing issues for four decades, both as an academic (at the universities of Oxford and London: 1975-2008) and as an international civil servant. In the latter role, as director of the World Health Organization (WHO) global programme on ageing (1995-2008), he conceived the Active Ageing policy framework and the global Age-friendly Cities movement.

Dr Kalache advises governments, foundations and businesses worldwide on ageing policy. He sits on a variety of boards for such bodies as the World Economic Forum, WHO, Oxford University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Eric Kimani is a Kenyan entrepreneur, corporate leader and philanthropist. He is also a published author and motivational speaker.

He served on the board of HelpAge International from 2006-2012, the last two years of which as board chair. As chair, Eric was instrumental in overseeing the organisational changes that occurred to create Age UK from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged.

In addition to his role as a HelpAge ambassador, Eric serves on the board of a number of private companies in Kenya and one in Mauritius. Additionally he serves as the chair of the board of Palmhouse Foundation, a Kenyan not-for-profit that helps educate bright, needy and deserving students through high school. Eric Kimani is also a past board member and chair of the board of HelpAge Kenya.

Professor Du Peng is vice-president of Renmin University of China and the director and professor of the Institute of Gerontology at Renmin University of China. His academic titles include vice-president of the China Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and president of Beijing Gerontological Society. A list of some of his publications can be found here.

Du Peng has been a member of the Experts Committee to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (since 2006), board member of HelpAge International (2008-2016), board member of the United Nations International Institute on Ageing (since 2008) and served as the chair of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Asia/Oceania region from 2009 to 2013.

Dr Mary Ann Tsao has pioneered new approaches to care for older people in south-east Asia as a founder member, former chief executive and current president of the Tsao Foundation, Singapore.

After training and working as a doctor in the USA, Dr Tsao set up the Tsao Foundation with her grandmother in 1993 to provide community health services for older people and promote successful ageing. She was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2000 and Public Service Star in 2004 for her work on ageing.

A well-known figure in the Sri Lankan business community, Tilak de Zoysa, FCMI (UK) FPRI (SL), honorary consul for Croatia and global ambassador for HelpAge International was conferred the title of “Deshabandu” by His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka in recognition of his services to the country, and was the recipient of “The Order of the Rising Sun. Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon” conferred by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.

Tilak de Zoysa chairs HelpAge Sri Lanka and serves on the boards of several private companies. He was also chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, HelpAge International (UK) and served as a member of the Monetary Board of Sri Lanka from 2003 to 2009.

Laura Machado is a national and international consultant for governments, civil society, academia, the private sector, and the media. She has dedicated her professional life to achieving a better life and dignity for older people worldwide.

Laura launched the Institute of Gerontology at The Candido Mendes University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first Institute of Gerontology in the country, focused on education, research and extension.

As an expert on human rights issues for older people, she became the main representative of the IAGG (International Association on Geriatrics and Gerontology) at the United Nations in 2005, and has since participated very actively in the Open-Ended Working Groups on Ageing towards the Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.

In 2010, she received an award from the Government of Brazil in recognition of her services to the country towards the rights of older people, and in 2013 by the IAGG also towards the rights of older people internationally.

She has served on the board of HelpAge International from 2012 to 2021 and is also a board member at the International Longevity Center in Brazil.