Archna Tharani – Chair and Director
Archna is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the ICAEW. Having previously enjoyed a 20-year career in finance she has now changed career to become a Maths teacher. She has held various CFO roles and owned an award-winning small accountancy practice. She brings her extensive finance expertise to ARL worked with numerous small businesses.
Archna has two young children with multiple allergies and knows the daily challenges of finding alternatives, ensuring adequate nutrition, and eating out and travelling safely very well. Her children’s allergies have evolved and changed over the years where some they grew out of and others were new allergens which needed constant care and management. The children have been through the full “allergic march” with eczema, asthma, and allergic rhinitis. Her personal experience of trying to understand and manage the allergies has led her to support ARL.
Deborah Dixon – Director
Deborah Dixon is currently Publishing Director for Medical Journals at Oxford University Press, where she manages a team publishing journals on behalf of learned societies across the globe. She has also held journals publishing leadership roles at Wiley and British Medical Journal. Before embarking on a publishing career she studied biochemistry and did postgraduate research in neurological disease. Deborah has held several non-executive board positions on publishing industry bodies and is Treasurer for the charity Evidence Aid.
Deborah, her husband and two sons in their 20s all suffer with allergies including allergic asthma, eczema, and hay fever as well as more rare autoimmune disease. She is excited to be joining the Board for ARL and bringing her business expertise as well as her knowledge of the research landscape.
Dr. Brian Hewitt – Director
Although Brian began his career working in allergy research, a topic about which he remains passionate, in his later career he was Managing Director of a number of healthcare and industrial businesses, developing strategic and business plans for those organisations, with ultimate responsibility for their successful implementation.
Brian brings both his experience of research and development and his valuable expertise in marketing, sales and business development to the Allergy UK board of trustees. He maintains his involvement with a range of trade organisation committees and currently lives in France.
Raj Modi – Director
Raj Modi is an experienced strategy and transformation consultant with over 20 years working across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, public health, insurance, and start-ups. He has led the development and execution of business strategies at the board level. Currently, as Senior Director at Oracle Life Sciences, Raj helps Life Science organisations accelerate research, digitise clinical trials, unify clinical data, and enhance healthcare.
Lynne Pritchard – Director (Chair of Trustees of British Allergy Foundation)
Lynne is a freelance management consultant with experience of working in the private, public and third sectors. She has been a qualified corporate member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) since 1992 and is now a Chartered Fellow. She has extensive hands-on experience of most aspects of HR at both operational and strategic level, with a broad base of commercial experience and a good understanding of corporate governance and the responsibilities of directors.
Several members of Lynne’s family are allergy sufferers and she is fully committed to supporting the executive team towards achieving the charity’s mission to raise the profile of allergy at all levels and support those who live with allergy.
Lynne has two grown up children and lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband and their three cats.