Sarah Harper (MA, Cantab; DPhil, Oxon) is a non-executive director of Club Vita’s Supervisory Board. She is Professor of Gerontology at Oxford University and Director of the Oxford Institute of Ageing, a multi-disciplinary research unit concerned with the implications of population ageing. Her research concerns globalisation and global ageing, and the impact of population change, in particular the implications at the global, societal and individual level of the shift in population ages from predominantly young to predominantly older societies. Particular research interests are the impact of this demographic shift on intergenerational relationships and work.

She has undertaken research in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific with particular interest in
China, Japan and Malaysia. Professor Harper trained as an ethnographer and has extensive experience in qualitative methodologies. Throughout her research career she has collaborated with quantitative researchers, enabling her to develop extensive quantitative and qualitative research methods. Sarah originally trained with the BBC as a News and Current Affairs reporter and worked as a producer. Before returning to Oxford she was a professor in Public Policy at the University of Chicago and remains a Research Associate at the Centre of Demography and Economics.