Born in Lidköping, Sweden in 1953, UllaKarin was the only child of Ivar and Karin Hjalmarsson. She obtained an L.L.B. at the University of Lund Sweden and in 1980 was employed by the Law Courts of Sweden as a Tingsnotarie (Deputy District Judge).
UllaKarin met and was married to Joseph Clark in 1982 in Gothenburg, where he was serving as H.M Consul at the British Consulate. Their first son Alexander was born in Sweden. Joseph returned to the Foreign Office in 1985 and UllaKarin and Alexander accompanied him. They settled in Wokingham, Joseph’s hometown where their second and third sons, Sebastian and Edward were born. UllaKarin started work as a Senior Legal Adviser as to a Swedish company based in London and established a legal department within the existing company framework to provide legal advice to European exporting companies.
In 1988 Joseph was posted as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Yugoslavia where UllaKarin found employment teaching Swedish as a foreign language at the Belgrade Institute of Foreign Languages. She also studied Serbo-Croatian which helped her greatly in teaching Yugoslav students of different age groups.
In 1991 Joseph was posted as H.M. Consul and Head of Post to the British Consulate in Dallas, Texas where UllaKarin continued teaching and also worked part time as a European lawyer. She also served on the Church Council of the Episcopal Church near their home in Highland Park and was member of the Board of Women of Rotary. Upon Joseph’s retirement from the Diplomatic Service in 1995, the family returned to Wokingham where UllaKarin resumed her legal career.
She was admitted to the Swedish Bar Association and to the law Society for England and Wales as a European lawyer in 2002. She worked for law firms in Reading and London. In London she was employed as a senior European solicitor and later became a partner in the firm. UllaKarin was elected a member of the Board and later Secretary of the International Chapter of the Swedish Bar Association 2003 to 2009.
Before marriage, UllaKarin had been an active member of the Moderata amlingspartiet (the near equivalent of the UK conservative party). She soon became involved in local politics in Wokingham, and in 2002, was elected to represent her home ward Emmbrook, as a Councillor at Wokingham Town Council. Shortly after her election, she became a Special Needs Governor of Emmbrook Infant School and a member of the Emmbrook Village Hall Committee.
She served as Deputy (later chairman) of the Planning and Transportation Committee. She also served as a member of the Amenities Committee, Establishment committee (later names as Personnel Committee), and Finance and General-Purpose Committee. She was chairman of the Civic Committee between 2009 and 2011.
In 2003 she was elected by the Emmbrook Ward to serve as a Councillor at Wokingham Borough Council. As a Borough Councillor, UllaKarin was a member of Wokingham Town Centre Management initiative between 2003 and 2005. She was appointed Chairman of the Area Youth Committee Wokingham and Winnersh and served in that capacity between 2007 and 2009. She was the Vice-Chairman of the Audit Committee in 2007, Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Finance Panel between 2008 and 2009 and Chairman of the Wokingham Giving Partnership between 2010 and 2013 serving twice on the Corporate Parenting Board, The Borough Wide Partnership Forum, The Borough Parish Working Group, The Standards Committee, and the Licensing and Appeals Committee. She has also been a member of the Planning Committee and the Highways Board.
UllaKarin was a member of the Borough Council Executive between 2010 and 2012 with a portfolio consisting of Hman Resources, Legal, Audit, Community Development, Trading Standards, Health and Safety, Licensing, Culture, Sports, Libraries, Environmental Health, and the Customer Service Department called Wokingham Direct.
Having previously been elected and served as Mayor and Chairman of Wokingham Town Council 2009 to 2010 and again in 2010 to 2011, she was appointed Borough Deputy Mayor in 2012. She became Mayor and Chairman of Wokingham Borough Council in 2013 and was re-elected in 2014.
During her time as mayor of Wokingham town, UllaKarin carried out fundraising on behalf of local charities, Wokingham Hospital and Crossroads Care. In her first year as Mayor at Wokingham Borough Council, her chosen charity was Building for the Future, a charity supporting disabled children and their families. In 2014 she set up a fund, in association with the Wokingham Charity More Arts, to support a mentor deserving teenagers between 14 and 19 years of age who lived in the Borough and who were showing an aptitude for the arts but did not have the resources or opportunities to reach their full potential.
As a member of the Conservative Party, UllaKarin was selected in 2005 to join the pool of approved parliamentary candidates where she remained until 2010 when the list was revamped to include a wider range of younger, more diverse potential candidates. She was a member of the Rotary in the UK 2010 to 2013. In 2012, she was asked to take on the Chairmanship of Wokingham Stroke Club, a social club for stroke survivors. The club had been running successfully for over 20 years but was in danger of closing due to the infirmity of the people managing the Club. Wokingham Stroke Club began to thrive once again with regular meetings guest speakers and outings.
One of Ullakarin’s interests had always been teaching and she obtained a teaching degree from the London Montessori centre in 2000 whilst continuing to work full time as a solicitor. She then worked part- time as a Montessori teacher in a private school outside of the Borough.
UllaKarin retired as a Town Councillor in May 2019.