Future of Ageing 2025: Planning for the long-term

Full Agenda:

*Please note the agenda may be subject to change

We’re delighted to announce the following speakers will be joining us at Future of Ageing 2025: Planning for the long-term

• Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
• Fiona Dunsire, Government Actuary, Government Actuary’s Department
• Sarah Allan, Head of Architecture and Urban Design, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Zoë Garbett, Assembly Member, London Assembly
• Professor George Ploubidis, Professor of Population Health and Statistics, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London
• Vanessa Moulton, Senior Researcher, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London
• Nicky Draper, Honorary Fellowship, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
• William Roberts, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health
• Dr Charlotte Refsum, Director of Health Policy, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
• Judith Banjoko, Executive Director of Services, Shelter UK
• Laura Gimeno, Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London
• Richard Maughan, Senior Director, UK Policy and Public Affairs, Pfizer
• Kate Ambrosi, Chief Executive, Baker Dearing Educational Trust
• Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation
• Dr Chris Fitch, Vulnerability Lead, Money Advice Trust
• Darío Moreno-Agostino, Principal Research Fellow in Population Mental Health and co-lead of the Ageing Theme, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London
• Jonathan Rallings, Senior Policy Advisor, County Councils Network
• Martin Jones, CEO, Home Instead
• Dr Adele Atkinson, Professor of Practice in Financial Literacy and Wellbeing in CHASM, University of Birmingham
• Professor Becky Tunstall, Professor Emerita of Housing Policy, Centre for Housing Policy, University of York
• Sarah Walker, Partner – Real Estate, Travers Smith
• Alastair Smith-Agbaje, CEO, Future Men
• Lucy Hawthorne, Facilitator, Climate Play
• Dr Matthew Forshaw, Senior Advisor for Skills, Turing Institute
• Dr Georgia Bowers, Creative Ageing Expert, University of Surrey

We’re delighted to announce the following speakers will be joining us at Future of Ageing 2025: Planning for the long-term

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
Andy Burnham was first elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017, re-elected for a second term in May 2021 and a third term in May 2024, and has been a leading national voice on ageing. Responsible for shaping the future of Greater Manchester, Andy’s priorities for his third term as Mayor include continuing to build a London-style integrated transport system, ending the housing crisis by 2038, offering a new technical education pathway as an alternative to university and creating a new Live Well service, making Greater Manchester a great place to grow up, get on, and grow old. GM is pioneering a new positive narrative around ageing, celebrating that more people are living longer and the opportunities that this brings for us individually and as a society.

In March 2018, GM became the UK’s first age-friendly city region recognised by the World Health Organization. In 2024, the GM Ageing Hub launched the new Greater Manchester Age-friendly Strategy 2024 – 2034 setting out a 10-year vision of an age-friendly city-region.

Before being elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy was MP for Leigh and held multiple Ministerial and Shadow Ministerial positions.

During his keynote, he will speak about his vision for Greater Manchester, followed by a Q&A and opportunity for discussion.

Sarah Allan, Head of Architecture and Urban Design, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Sarah’s role in Government is focused on design policy and its implementation. She supports the delivery of the Government’s commitment to improve the design quality of homes and places, by working across Government departments, and with external stakeholders, to ensure architecture and urban design contribute to creating well-designed places that are sustainable, more equal, feel safe and are shaped by their communities.

Sarah is an architect, urban designer and project manager with over 25 years’ experience helping public and private sector clients deliver residential-led projects from masterplans to individual homes.

Dr Adele Atkinson, Professor of Practice in Financial Literacy and Wellbeing in CHASM, University of Birmingham
Adele is a Professor of Practice in Financial Literacy and Wellbeing in CHASM, a research centre at the University of Birmingham that looks at the causes and consequences of financial risk and insecurity, and promotes policies to foster financial wellbeing. Before joining CHASM Adele was Head of Financial Education at the OECD in Paris, responsible for a network of over 120 countries. She is a Netspar Fellow and Research Associate of the G53 Financial Literacy and Personal Finance Research Network. She also provides consultancy to various organisations working on financial literacy and wellbeing, including the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the World Bank, and several financial sector foundations.

Judith Banjoko, Executive Director of Services, Shelter UK
Judith Banjoko is the Executive Director of Services at Shelter UK the National Homelessness Charity, overseeing Community and National Services, Legal support, and Telephone and Online Advice for the national charity. She also serves as the executive representative on Shelter’s Safeguarding Panel, ensuring robust protections for those they support. With a background in the domestic abuse sector,

Judith was formerly the Interim CEO at Solace, where she guided the organisation through a period of transformative change. She is deeply committed to advocating for vulnerable communities and dedicated to creating inclusive services that empower and uplift those on the margins. Judith joined YMCA as a trustee in 2024, driven by her commitment to building a fairer, safer world and her passion for supporting young people.

Dr Georgia Bowers, Creative Ageing Expert, University of Surrey  
Dr Georgia Bowers is one of the UK’s leading Creative Ageing practitioners and has been creating theatre with older adults for over a decade. Her research and theatre practice examines how theatre with older adults can lobby for older people’s rights and has been shared and celebrated across Europe and North America. She is a Lecturer and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Applied and Contemporary Theatre degree at the Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey. Georgia is also a fellow of the Centre of Excellence on Ageing and is a Trustee of the London Bubble Theatre Company.

Dr Cynthia Bullock, Deputy Director, Healthy Ageing Challenge, Innovate UK, UK Research and Innovation.Cynthia Bullock leads the innovation activities across the UK Government’s £98 million Healthy Ageing Challenge supporting the development and delivery of products and services that will allow people to remain active, productive, independent and socially connected across generations for as long as possible.

Cynthia has a background in health research, innovation and commercialisation having trained initially as a Biochemist and Molecular Biologist and then obtained an MBA at Imperial College London.  Previously, she led the delivery of Health and Life science programmes at Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency representing over £400 million of investment across therapeutics, MedTech, diagnostics and digital health technologies.

Jon Collins, Chief Executive, Prisoners’ Education Trust 
Jon Collins is Chief Executive of Prisoners’ Education Trust, the UK’s leading prison education charity. Prisoners’ Education Trust offers distance learning courses and related advice and guidance to people in prison and works to improve prison education and show policymakers and the public the impact that it has.  
 
Jon joined PET in 2021, having previously been Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Association, the membership body for magistrates in England and Wales. Prior to that, Jon was Chief Executive of the Restorative Justice Council and he has previously worked at the Police Foundation, the Criminal Justice Alliance, the Fawcett Society and Nacro. Jon has also been a member of the Victims’ Commissioner Advisory Group, a member of the Commission on Crime and Problem Gambling, and a governor of a London primary school.

Nicky Draper, Honorary Fellowship, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
Nicky Draper is a leading expert in Public Health and associated Mortality, Morbidity & Longevity risk. Nicky previously worked in the UK National Health Service as a nurse for 19 years, formerly in neonatal intensive care, and latterly in public health before moving across to the longevity consulting world in 2007. Since 2007, she has provided ongoing research and support to actuaries and the wider insurance industry. In 2020, Nicky joined the Covid-19 Action Taskforce and also co-chaired the non-affiliated Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group. She has also co-chaired the Diabetes Working Party and the Antimicrobial Resistance Working Party, she sits on the Health and Care Board and is a member of the Lifelong Learning Sub-Committee.

In 2021 Nicky was awarded the IFoA President’s Award for her medical expertise, and in 2024 she was elected as an Honorary Fellow for her service to the profession. She currently works for Crystallise Ltd where she is Director of Longevity Consulting.

Fiona Dunsire, Government Actuary, Government Actuary’s Department 
Fiona Dunsire took up the role as Government Actuary on 1 November 2023. She joined GAD following 35 years of experience in the private sector where she held a variety of roles across pensions and investments, including as UK CEO of Mercer from 2012 to 2019. She has led teams around the world to deliver investment and retirement solutions to clients and supported a three-year project with the World Economic Forum on Transformational Investment. She has been a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries since 1993.  
 
Fiona is the first female Government Actuary since the post was created in 1917. She is an active advocate for diversity, is a Trustee of a charity whose purpose is to alleviate poverty and improve health in North London, and a volunteer maths tutor for a charity supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities.

Dr. Ines Hassan, Director of Health Policy, Ellison Institute of Technology
Dr. Ines Hassan is the Director of Health Policy at the Ellison Institute of Technology and a senior member of the Strategy team. In this role, she works on key partnerships for EIT with governments, academic institutions, and policymaking organisations. She focuses on integrating policy and strategy into the Institute’s programmes, particularly in health, and fostering collaborations with global leaders in life sciences and health to advance EIT’s initiatives. 

Ines has over 15 years of experience as a senior advisor in pharmaceuticals and global health. Her career began in commercial pharmaceutical strategy, supporting biotech and pharma companies in product commercialization and market strategy. She later transitioned to global health policy, advising governments and multilateral organizations on how to address pressing health challenges. Before joining EIT, Ines was a senior advisor at the Tony Blair Institute, where she focused on global health, preventative healthcare, and innovation policy. 

She holds a Master’s and Doctorate of Engineering in Biochemical Engineering from University College London and a Postgraduate Diploma in Global Health Policy from the University of Edinburgh. 

Dr Chris Fitch, Vulnerability Lead, Money Advice Trust
Dr Christopher Fitch is Vulnerability Lead at the Money Advice Trust and a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre (University of Bristol). Chris is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London.  Since 2007, Chris has led a programme of guidance, research, training, and intervention on vulnerability.  This programme has involved improving practice in more than 450 firms, over 50,000 staff, and across the financial and essential service sectors. 

Chris has also co-created industry-wide tools for working with vulnerable customers such as TEXAS, IDEA, and BRUCE, has confounded award-winning Vulnerability Academies with UK Finance (for firms) and the UK Regulators’ Network (for regulators), and is also host of the long-running Vulnerability Matters podcast series.

Dr Matthew Forshaw is Senior Advisor for Skills, The Alan Turing Institute,
Dr Matthew Forshaw is Senior Advisor for Skills to The Alan Turing Institute, and a Reader in Data Science at Newcastle University. His work in data and AI skills includes working with the Government on the skills pillar of the National Data Strategy, as College of Experts member to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and leading the development of AI Skills for Business competency framework with Innovate UK BridgeAI.

Matthew’s work on professionalisation of the data science occupation with the Alliance of Data Science Professionals is having a major impact on public and professional policy and practice, setting professional values and ethical standards for the use of data science and AI for the UK’s accreditation and certification processes across several major professional bodies. He is passionate about democratising access to, and widening participation into, data and AI skills training at all levels.

Zoë Garbett, Assembly Member, London Assembly
Zoë Garbett has worked in the public sector and NHS for over 10 years holding senior roles in public health, adult social care and children’s health services – delivering projects that address health inequalities and tackle the disproportionality in drug policing. Zoë was elected as a councillor in Hackney in 2022 with the highest Green vote in London and has a track record of taking action on injustice. A long-time London renter in East London, Zoë is all too familiar with the ripple effects of gentrification across our city, the importance of truly affordable rental homes, and the need for urgent protections for all of London’s renters.

Laura Gimeno, Doctoral researcher, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL
Laura Gimeno is a doctoral researcher at UCL’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Her research uses longitudinal data from Britain’s series of birth cohort studies to understand generational trends in poor physical health and longstanding illness.

Lucy Hawthorne, Facilitator, Climate Play
Lucy Hawthorne leads Climate Play, specialising in play-based climate engagement that helps people to engage more deeply, honestly and creatively in the topic. She delivers the world’s only LEGO Serious Play training specifically focused on sustainability and is building a community of trainees, Climate Players, who are taking the method into organisations and communities to catalyse climate action around Europe. Her background is in environmental NGO campaigning and, despite having some big ‘wins’ on environmental policy, she found that the heaviness of the conversation was sapping people’s ability to absorb reality and their energy to act. So now she leans into approaches that help people look at the problems without turning away.

Dr Chris McGinley, RCA
Chris is a Senior Research Fellow and Reader in Inclusive Design at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), based in the Royal College of Art (RCA), where he leads the Age and Diversity research space, and the Design Age Institute’s Research Unit. Chris is a principal researcher/designer on a range of projects and leads on all ‘age and diversity’ projects for a host of major global private, public and third sector companies. His research interests explore inclusive design, design ethnography, leadership, creativity and the role of empathy within people-centred design.

Vanessa Moulton, Senior Researcher, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL
Vanessa is a researcher at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), focusing on mental health, cognition and social inequalities throughout the life course. Her work mainly uses secondary data analysis of large-scale longitudinal data sets, with a particular focus on the British birth cohort studies. She has published on areas including cognitive ability and skills, children’s aspirations, mental health in childhood and across the life-course, wealth, social mobility and mental health inequalities. Vanessa is the cognition lead at CLS and co-develops and delivers the training programme for the CLS cohorts.

Dr Dario Moreno-Agostino, Principal Research Fellow in Population Mental Health and co-lead of the Ageing Theme, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL
Dr Darío Moreno-Agostino (he/him) is Principal Research Fellow in Population Mental Health and co-lead of the Ageing Theme at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Darío’s research focuses on the study of mental health and healthy ageing outcomes in the population. He investigates trajectories and social inequalities in these outcomes over the life course, factoring in the impact of early life determinants and generational and intersectional inequalities.

Ruth Persian, Principal Advisor, Behavioural Insights Team 
Ruth Persian leads BIT UK’s Financial Behaviour and Gambling Harms Research team, tackling challenges from encouraging retirement savings to mitigating the risk of gambling-related harms. The team’s work supports government, regulators, third-sector organisations, and private-sector initiatives and informs policy making in the UK and beyond. Recent projects include an experimental study on how incentives influence pension transfer decisions and a review of evidence on pension scams in the UK. 
 
Ruth holds a Master’s in Economics from Oxford University and studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Tübingen and the University of Cape Town.

William Roberts, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health
William Roberts is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Public Health. Previously William has been a senior leader in the NHS across roles in public health, commissioning,strategy, transformation and planning. He is a registered nurse who has worked in both hospital and community services, and as a nurse specialist in tuberculosis and HIV.

William is a Non-Executive Director of Housing 21 and was previously Deputy Chair at Terrence Higgins Trust and a Non- Executive Director of POBL a Welsh housing and care provider. He is the Chair of the Swimming and Health Commission and is a member of Movember’s Global Men’s Health Advisory Committee. He brings a wealth of experience across public health and inequalities from the healthcare, charity sector, social care, housing, local government and further education.

Beatrice Sangster, Royal College of Art

Beatrice Sangster is a London-based interdisciplinary Graphic Designer and Art Director, with a process-driven approach that focuses on exploring models of practice, inclusive design, and visual systems of communication across diverse disciplines. Before studying MA Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art, Beatrice previously studied at Central Saint Martins and has gained work experience as well as studying different practices in a range of design studios including Akiko Aoki in Tokyo, Louis Vuitton in Paris, and House + Holme in London.

Alastair Smith-Agbaje, CEO, Future Men
Passionate about the wellbeing and support of vulnerable people within communities, in particular individuals who struggle with low self-esteem and mental health related issues. Alastair joined Future Men in February 2024, prior to this role he worked as CEO, Lambeth and Southwark Mind for a number of years. Alastair has a background in financial accounting.

Alastair has worked for several organisations in senior leadership roles, within corporate companies, charities and local authorities based in United Kingdom. Alastair has lived and worked overseas for several years in Japan, Korea and Norway.

Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation
Will Snell is Chief Executive of the Fairness Foundation. He is a non-profit entrepreneur with experience across a range of sectors, both in the UK and overseas.

After founding an educational charity at university, he spent several years on the UK government’s civil service fast stream programme at the Department of Health and then the Department for International Development, working on a range of issues including emergency planning, counter-terrorism and Iraq reconstruction, before leaving to set up a skills mentoring programme for entrepreneurs in Kenya.

Between 2011 and 2017 he designed and delivered a growth strategy for an evidence-based media/health NGO, Development Media International, raising $19m. In 2017 he set up Tax Justice UK, a sister organisation of the Tax Justice Network (TJN), before joining TJN as Director of Operations (leading on fundraising, finance and reporting, governance, human resources and systems) with the remit of building the infrastructure needed to enable continued growth and impact.

Professor BeckyTunstall, Professor Emerita of Housing Policy, Centre for Housing Policy, University of York
Becky Tunstall is Professor Emerita of Housing Policy at the University of York. Her research focuses on social housing, neighbourhoods and the relationship between housing and inequality. She is author of the Fall and rise of social housing: 100 years on 20 estates, and Stay home: Housing and home in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is currently leading Insecure lives, a project on the experience of multiple insecurities, including housing insecurity, based at LSE.

Sarah Walker, Partner, Travers Smith Real Estate
Sarah Walker is a partner in the Travers Smith Real Estate team with a particular expertise in the investment into, and development of, housing and healthcare for older people. 

Sarah has a particular focus and considerable experience in the investment into and development of housing and healthcare for older people acting for investors, developers and operators, such as long-standing clients Care REIT plc (formerly Impact REIT) and McCarthy Stone.  Older people’s housing and care is a subject close to Sarah’s heart and one in which she brings a great deal of understanding and expertise, having worked in the sector for many years. 

Sarah routinely advises her clients on the acquisition, disposal, development and financing of a range of housing asset classes but predominantly in the multifamily/PRS/BTR and student/graduate accommodation space. Acting for experienced operator and developers such as Westrock and The University of Oxford, Sarah has particular experience with joint ventures.

We want to hear from you

If you would like to find out more about Future of Ageing 2025, please contact Martha Wragg. If you’re interested in sponsoring a session, get in touch with Paul Goulden.