Our Board of Trustees

Simon Dukes

Chair of Trustees

Simon is the Chief Executive of charity Fair For You as well as its wholly owned Community Interest Company, Fair For You Enterprises. Fair For You is an ethical and low interest loans company aimed at low income families. Prior to this, he was the CEO of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), which is the body responsible for negotiating community pharmacy services on behalf of the country’s 11,000 community pharmacies. With over two decades working in the UK public sector, Simon has experience in a number of roles and specialisms including defence and security policy, public affairs, media and communications strategy, negotiation and cyber security. In 2013 he left HM Government to become the Chief Executive of the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, Cifas. There, he was on the Oversight Board of the Home Secretary’s Joint Fraud Task Force, and the Management Board of the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Task Force. Simon became Chair (Designate) of Antibiotic Research UK in January 2021.

Commenting on his appointment, Simon said: “I am delighted to be joining Antibiotic Research UK as Chair Designate. The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the impact that infectious illnesses can have on our society. The predictions of global deaths from antibiotic resistance in the decades to come put those from COVID-19 in the shade. This is why the work of Antibiotic Research UK, the only charity in the UK dedicated to fighting antimicrobial resistance, is so important. I look forward to working with the Trustee Board and Chief Executive to help ANTRUK realise its ambitious plans in antimicrobial research, education and patient support.”

Jonathan Pearce

Chief Executive

Jonathan has nearly 20 years’ experience as a CEO in the UK charity sector and has led a number of national organisations, including DKMS UK, Lymphoma Action and Adoption UK. He has experience in the social care, health and legal sectors, working both nationally and internationally. Since 2013 he has worked exclusively in the health sector, focusing on raising awareness and funds for blood cancers and disorders, as well as providing medical services, and information, advice and support, for patients and families, often with unmet needs. Earlier in his career he worked in the fields of law, publishing and journalism.

Fiona Russell

Trustee

Fiona is the Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Elton John AIDS Foundation, a charity dedicated to ending the spread of AIDS. She strongly believes in the power of non-profits to change the world. She is a chartered accountant and qualified coach. Her career started at PriceWaterhouse Coopers, before she moved to management consultancy and onto Diageo PLC before transferring to the non-profit sector.

Phil Robinson

Trustee and Honorary Treasurer

Phil is a Chartered Accountant, who has worked both in professional practice and a number of specialist finance roles (tax and treasury) in industry, including his recent role for a global healthcare communications and commercialisation business. He has an academic background in scientific research, notably being awarded a PhD (Pharmacology) from the University of Manchester, prior to his transition to accountancy. He has previous experience with being a trustee of a small charity in the preschool education sector and as a lay person on a funding committee for the National Institute for Health Research.

Rosemary Howell

Trustee

Rosemary is an experienced medical device and diagnostic manager who works with companies on clinical research studies and entry to market strategies.

She has over 30 years sales, marketing, business development and management experience in the healthcare sector, working with a variety of companies including Bayer Diagnostics, Smiths Industries, Nutricia, Provalis, Wockhardt and a number of start-up companies. Rosemary originally qualified as a nurse, has a MBA and a Diploma in Marketing.

Clare Kerr

Trustee

Clare Kerr registered as a pharmacist in 1989 having qualified from Queen’s University, Belfast. Clare worked for LloydsPharmacy (and parent companies Celesio, McKesson and Aurelius) for over 35 years in a variety of roles progressing from Pharmacy Manager, into field management and then into more senior roles. In 2000, Clare took on a role in service development and she went on to lead a team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the development and implementation of a wide range of clinical services. For the last 10 years Clare has focused on healthcare policy and strategy working with key stakeholders across government and the NHS. During this time, she has been a Board Director of the Company Chemists’ Association, which she stepped down from in September 2023, and has also been a committee member on Community Pharmacy England, a position she currently maintains. Clare now works for Rowlands Pharmacy as Pharmacy Policy Manager.

Peter Kirkpatrick

Trustee

Peter Kirkpatrick is the Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, where he has been an editor since the journal’s launch in 2001, becoming the Chief Editor in 2004. Previously he gained a PhD in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University for studies on the biosynthesis and mode of action of vancomycin-group antibiotics, which had the goal of aiding the rational identification of new drugs capable of combating multidrug-resistant bacteria. He maintains a strong interest in the scientific and commercial challenges in combating antimicrobial resistance, and he is keen to help identify and support approaches that could tackle these challenges.

Rose Gray

Trustee

Rose is an experienced leader in the health sector, with a background spanning policy and communications. She is currently Head of External Affairs at the Royal College of Radiologists; prior to that she spent seven years at Cancer Research UK, in a range of roles including Head of Policy and Special Adviser to the CEO. Rose has a varied background, with an educational background in chemistry and six years as a nursing assistant. Rose is excited about the future of Antibiotic Research UK and passionate about the role that policy and communications can play in driving forward progress for the charity.

Christine Richardson

Trustee

Christine Richardson has a PhD in chemistry and has spent 30 years as a researcher in industrial drug discovery. She has worked in a range of organisations, including big pharma, biotech and contract research organisations. She has a strong interest in the discovery of new classes of antibiotics and also in what can be done to preserve the efficacy of the medications that we already have. Her specialism is computational chemistry and she spent 10 years as a Committee Member of the Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society, including 3 years as Chair.

Christine also believes in the importance of the wider social environment in helping people to heal from disease and to restore a good quality of life. Loneliness and social isolation are known to have a deleterious effect on a person’s wellbeing. She is encouraged to see the role Antibiotics Research UK is taking in supporting those left with long term health issues as a result of antibiotic resistant infections and is interested in seeing how this role can be further expanded.

Ghada Zoubiane

Trustee

Ghada is the Head of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement at the International Centre for AMR Solutions (ICARS) supporting their efforts to mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low- and middle-income countries. In her role, she is shaping and delivering on ICARS’ mission, bridging the gap between science and policy, and working in close collaboration with a range of stakeholders to tackle AMR.
Ghada has over 20-year experience in both the public and private sector developing and executing research strategies at national and international levels. She was previously the Science and Innovation Lead on AMR at Wellcome and previous to that the UK Medical Research Council Programme Manager leading on shaping AMR, as well as infectious diseases and other public health programmes.
Ghada holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, a MSc in Agriculture and Animal Sciences and is currently working towards her MSc in Global Health Policy.