The Age Connects Wales Board
Meet our board members
Angela Reed
Angela Reed is the Chief Executive of Age Connects Torfaen and has held this role for the past 34 years. She has considerable experience at an executive level across the charity sector and has managed many successful projects including the renovation of “Widdershins Centre” in 2004; the first ‘Wellbeing Centre for Older People in South East Wales’.
Angela is an active member of the third sector community, with a keen focus on inclusion, partnership working as well as driving social change. Earlier in her career, Angela was instrumental in securing the first Voluntary Council in Torfaen, a movement which enabled Torfaen to have their own community empowerment network.
Overall, Angela has a wealth of experience in fundraising, program development, and member-focused roles within the non-profit sector which she brings to the board of Age Connects Wales.
Angela has a strong background in finance in both the public and commercial sectors. Angela started the first social enterprise in Torfaen, which continues to provide a sustainable income, helping the development of service delivery.
Angela has wide-ranging non-executive experience in charities and social enterprises and has led and participated in several projects on behalf of Welsh Government, Local Authority, including, a member of Gwent Dementia Board, Lloyds Foundation South East Wales Forum, and the Happily Independent network.
Rachel Rowlands
Rachel is the Chief Executive Officer of Age Connects Morgannwg, a charity who support older people living in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil. A position she has held since 2005. Rachel brings to the board of Age Connects Wales a strong track record of success in the sector.
Rachel began her third sector career in 1995, when she joined the Care & Repair movement; first as an employee of a local agency, then as a board member of Care & Repair Cymru until she stood down as chair in 2018.
In 2014, Rachel led Age Connects Morgannwg to deliver a Community Asset Transfer Project that has transformed a former council-owned older people’s day centre in Aberdare into a vibrant community hub. The project, called Cynon Linc, attracted £2.6m of investment from a range of sources, which allows the hub to offer meeting spaces, soft play area, a GP practice, a restaurant, and busy events programme.
In 2017, she was elected as the National Third Sector Representative to the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board (CTM RPB), becoming chair in May 2018 was re-elected as chair for a third year in May 2020. In her capacity as the chair of the CTM RPB, Rachel became Protect Workstream Lead of the region’s COVID-19 Test Trace Protect Programme.
Karen Crane
Karen is the Chief Executive Officer of Age Connects North East Wales. She started her career working in the finance department of a large high street retail company but after a couple of years decided to change direction and look for a more customer focused role. She moved to the Department of Work and Pensions, where she stayed for over 25 years.
During this period Karen had a number of roles initially starting as an Admin Officer but then progressing to several executive positions, including Manager, Training Officer, Management Training Consultant and becoming an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Karen moved into the voluntary sector in 2007, she had become disgruntled with the contradictions of DWP policy and quickly realised that her skills could be best used in a charitable organisation. Karen started at Age Connects Torfaen as a volunteer, quickly followed by paid employment as a Befriending Officer, then Project Manager, Charitable Services Manager and finally in 2014 she was delighted to become CEO.
Maxine Johnson
Maxine Johnson is the Chief Executive Officer of Age Connects Torfaen for Age Connects Cardiff and the Vale after joining the organisation in February 2024.
As charity CEO, Maxine leads on all of the vital services and support Age Connects Cardiff and the Vale offer to older people in need living in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Maxine is passionate about reducing loneliness and isolation amongst older people and understands how this can affect people’s mental and physical health, reducing quality of life dramatically.
Maxine is committed to continuing and developing the amazing work that Age Connects Cardiff and the Vale has achieved over all these years and building on this success moving forward. She wants the charity to be able to respond to the increased demands of an aging population providing the services people need when they are needed most.
Prior to this appointment, Maxine had been working as Head of Wales at Cruse Bereavement Support and for the last three years was involved in the provision of compassionate and professional support to people who are grieving. She has 20 years of working in the third sector including a Team Leader position at Barnardo’s, where she oversaw the delivery of services for children and families affected by abuse, neglect, and trauma.
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