BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Noriko Tominaga-Carpentier

Noriko Carpentier-Tominaga joined the Board of Directors of Ashinaga Association in the UK in February 2017. Noriko is also a board member of the Ashinaga Foundation. Based in Paris, Noriko works to strengthen French-Japanese economic relationships as Deleguee Generale of the Comite d’Echanges Franco-Japonais. Working with companies seeking broader and deeper connections, Noriko cares about the interests of each of them and tries to offer a variety of activities to facilitate them developing their business. Noriko’s current focus for Ashinaga is to support the development of professional opportunities for alumni to enable them to contribute to African development.

Yoshiomi Tamai

Yoshiomi Tamai joined the Board of Directors of Ashinaga Association in the UK in February 2017. Yoshiomi Tamai is the founder and president of the Ashinaga Foundation. After losing his mother in a traffic accident over fifty years ago, he became passionate about working to support the educational and emotional needs of orphans who lost their parents in traffic accidents. He founded an organisation, Ashinaga, that gave scholarships to these orphans before extending the support to all children who have lost one or both parents. Tamai’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Global Fundraising award and, most recently, the Goto Shinpei award.

Yukie Seki

Yukie Seki has been on the Board of Ashinaga Association in the UK since February 2017. Yukie is also a member of the board of the Ashinaga Foundation, where she has responsibility for international activities. Yukie works as the director of Ashinaga Africa Initiative. Before joining Ashinaga, Yukie worked at Hewlett Packard as the Business Manager and Corporate Director.

Eric Thomas

Sir Eric Thomas joined the Board of Directors of Ashinaga Association in the UK in February 2018. Sir Eric was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol from 2001 to 2015, and President of Universities UK, the body that represents all UK universities, from 2011 to 2013. His childhood was in the North-East of England and he qualified as a medical doctor in 1976 from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He trained as a gynaecologist and was a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Southampton from 1991 to 2001. He was Dean of Medicine there from 1995 to 2000. He currently has a number of charitable trustee roles in the UK.

‘Funmi Olonosakin

Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin joined the Ashinaga UK Board of Trustees in August 2020. Professor ‘Funmi is Vice-President and Vice-Principal International and Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King’s College London, where she founded the African Leadership Centre. She was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, as one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) on the Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture. Professor ‘Funmi also serves on the board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and chairs the Africa Regional Advisory Committee of the Open Society Foundation.

Michael Rivera King

Dr Michael King joined the Board of Directors of Ashinaga Association in the UK in February 2017. Michael completed his doctorate in Social Policy at the University of Oxford, writing on alternative care and social work in Japan. Prior to this, Michael set up a volunteer organisation, Smile Kids Japan, to promote local, sustainable volunteering at child welfare institutions, and raised $900,000 for children affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Michael has also worked closely with Human Rights Watch, the Nippon Foundation, and the Japanese government to reform alternative care in Japan, including advising on the 2016 revisions to the Child Welfare Act.