Our Board of Trustees
Board Members
Keith Wakefield (Chair)
“After 30 years in adult and further education, and after 31 years as a local councillor in the Kippax and Methley area, which included two terms of being leader of Leeds City Council, I was really proud to be asked to be a trustee of Age UK Leeds in 2019 after I retired.
As someone with close involvement in social services in Leeds, I was aware of the excellent reputation and work of Age UK in Leeds. I’ve spent the last 12 months learning about the vital role our volunteers play in supporting and caring for our elderly in our local communities. Whether it’s giving benefits advice or befriending isolated and lonely clients, their experiences help to inform us of the services, help and support our clients need”.
Holly Smith
I was born and raised in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, attending Skipton Girls High School and then the University of Bristol, studying Economics and Accounting.
After leaving university I trained as a Chartered Accountant in London before moving back to Ilkley in 2006 where I started work in the Audit department at Deloitte in Leeds, specialising in charities as well as other private entities. I moved to the Transaction Services team at Deloitte in 2013, where I currently sit.
I am married with two young children, and if I ever get any spare time I enjoy swimming and cycling as a family.
Michael Allen
Michael is a Partner at KPMG where he leads the Health and Human Services Consulting Practice in the North of England. Michael has a BSc from the University of Newcastle, an MBA from the University of Bradford and is a graduate of the NHS Management Training Scheme. He spent the first 11 years of his career managing hospital and community services in London and Leeds before becoming a management consultant. Michael has over 15 years experience of working at Board level and has advised the Boards, Councils and Governing Bodies of over 30 organisations on governance, financial and performance improvement.
Michael lives in Roundhay with his wife who is the HR Director of an NHS Trust and two children aged 11 and 9. In his spare time Michael likes to cycle, watch his children play sport and grow vegetables on his allotment.
Michael is delighted to be joining the Board of Trustees and looks forward to working with our volunteers, clients and staff.
Sandra Cheseldine
Sandra worked for Midland Bank, latterly HSBC Bank plc for 30 years in a wide variety of roles. For the last ten years of her career she worked as a senior manager in Personal & Consumer Finance Audit for the Bank. She took early retirement in 2006. She also is Chair of Wakefield Citizens Advice Bureau and a Trustee at the Prince of Wales Hospice.
Roger Harington
Roger in addition to now being a Trustee at Age UK Leeds has been a longstanding member of the Leeds Older People’s Forum (LOPF) Trustee Board and in what was an eventful week for Roger on 1 April was elected as the new Chair of LOPF. Roger will be a fantastic addition to the Trustee Board, he has served as a Councillor in Leeds, has an active interest in the performing arts and is a keen cyclist.
Kim Gay
Kim joined our board of trustees in April 2023 . Kim was born, raised, and has lived all her life in Leeds. She is married with a daughter and a son. Since September 2021 Kim has also been a trustee of St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds, where she is a member of the Board and Chair of the Finance and Business Committee.
She is a qualified accountant and worked for the NHS for almost 43 years. During this time Kim has held senior managerial positions in finance, planning and general management, mainly working in the hospitals in Leeds. For 5 years prior to retirement Kim worked as the Finance lead for the formal collaboration between the six acute hospital trusts in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
From 2009 until 2021, Kim was the Vice-chair of the Patient Access Schemes Expert Panel for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This is a multi-disciplinary group with members drawn from across the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Department of Health, patient representatives and the pharmaceutical industry. The role of the panel is to review Patient Access Scheme proposals put forward by pharma companies and provide advice to the Department of Health as to whether the scheme should proceed.
From 2012-2014 Kim served as a member of a National Strategy Board, a partnership between the NHS and the pharmaceutical and homecare industries, reviewing and making recommendations to government on the pharmaceutical home care market.
Abigail Wok Marshall Katung
Abigail became a Trustee at Age UK Leeds in September 2023
She was born and raised in Nigeria, but moved to the UK to study in the University of Leeds and as of January 2024 is a governor at the Leeds City College.
Since May 2019 Abigail has been the elected local councillor for the Little London and Woodhouse Ward in Leeds.
In May 2024 she took up the position of Lord Mayor of Leeds becoming the first elected councillor from Africa to hold the council position, the second black person after Eileen Taylor and the 130th of all.
In 2008, she founded the David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA) in memory of David Oluwale a Nigerian migrant to the UK who arrived Leeds in 1949, but got drowned in the River Aire in 1969 with two British police officers held responsible for his death. In November 1971, the prosecution of those police officers made it the first and only time any prosecution for the death of a black person would be successfully carried out against state officials. She is also a co-chair of DOMA.
As of 2020, she was a lead member for the BAME and a BAME staff network member champion in Leeds.
In 2022, she co-chaired Leeds City Council's official ‘Food Champion’ alongside the CEO of FareShare Yorkshire.