Board of Directors nominees biographies
Ms Lyn Allison
Former teacher Lyn Allison was elected to the Senate in 1996 and was Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Democrats from 2004 to 2008. She held the Health and Disability portfolios, initiated (and chaired) a Senate inquiry into mental health in 2005 and one into education for people with disabilities in 2002. She participated in several delegations to SE Asia with the Federal Parliamentary Group on Population & Development.
Lyn has eight years governance experience with leadership roles on several boards and their committees including: Vision Australia; Orygen – the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health; Claremont & SouthPort Aged Care Ltd; Berry Street and The Accountability Round Table. Lyn also provides lobbying advice to community organisations and gives occasional lectures in public health leadership.
Lyn was appointed to the Vision Australia Board in July 2008. She is passionately committed to the strategic goals of Vision 2020 Australia, including working towards ending avoidable vision loss through prevention, early detection, intervention and increased awareness. On the Vision Australia Board, Lyn has a proven record of working to improve services for the blindness and low vision community in Australia and our region and towards rehabilitation and significant gains in independence and social inclusion.
Adjunct Professor Craig Bennett
Craig is a health economist by training and a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management. He has held senior management positions in both the private and public health care sectors in Australia and overseas. Craig also worked for an international consulting firm and as an academic economist.
Craig has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diabetes Victoria since March 2013.
Prior to this, he was the CEO of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne from May 2004. From October 1998 until April 2004, Craig was the CEO of the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth.
He has previously served as a Director on a number of boards in Melbourne, including Health Purchasing Victoria, the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Ltd, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation Ltd and the Council of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, plus a number of boards in Perth.
Mr John Davis
· Practicing Optometrist.
· Past President of the Australian Optometric Association.
· Past President of the Australian Optometrical Association NSW Division.
· Past member of Australian Health Professional Regulation Authority.
· Past President of the NSW Board of Optometrical Registration.
· Member of the Council of the Optometry Australia (NSW).
· Member of the Board of Optometrical Registration NSW.
· Foundation Member of the Optometric Vision Research Foundation 1972.
· Active member of Lions International for many years.
Mr Kerry Gallagher
Kerry has earned notable respect as a medico-political adviser and government relations expert. He is a registered lobbyist in every state and territory who capitalises on his knowledge of politics and bureaucracy to achieve consistently valuable outcomes for his clients.
Kerry has served as CEO of the Australia Medical Association (AMA) Queensland and also as Secretary General to Australian Medical Association federally. Significant achievements included developing a legislative framework for the national registration of medical practitioners and securing AMA involvement in the Northern Territory Indigenous intervention program.
Kerry played a vital role in securing changes to tort law in Queensland, allowing doctors to practice without the constant threat of frivolous and vexatious litigation and guaranteeing the delivery of complex medical procedures in Queensland hospitals. He also played a leading role in nationally significant improvements in salary and conditions for salaried doctors attracting a wave of new talent to Queensland’s health system.
In 2000, Kerry established the AMAQ Foundation, a charity supporting delivery of health services to disadvantaged rural and remote communities. The Foundation has assisted disadvantaged Queenslanders in accessing vital health services and annually provides scholarships towards the tuition of rurally focused medical students.
In 2008, Kerry was awarded the AMA President’s Award for “outstanding contribution towards fostering the objectives of the AMA”.
Kerry is a recognised builder and leader of result-focused teams, with more than 30 years’ experience as a manager of successful and respected organisations, in particular within the Australian Defence Force (ADF). He has a strong track record on selecting, developing and leading innovative teams.
Kerry has been awarded an Order of Australia medal for his efforts in the ADF. His final positions within the organisation included Colonel, Chief of Staff 1st Division to Australia’s only regular army division. In this post he fulfilled a detachment to advise the United Nations on the establishment of a mission in North West Africa.
Kerry has also acted in an appointment in London, United Kingdom (UK) as the Campaign Manager of the Millennium Heritage Project.
Mr Anthony Bennett Hall
Anthony Hall was born in Lesotho in Southern Africa to missionary parents. He worked in Zimbabwe and Lesotho as a general medical doctor for a number of years.
He spent 12 years in UK, training in general ophthalmology retinal surgery. While he was consultant in Peterborough he led the department to a Prime Minister’s Health Innovation Award for work with optometrists on cataract waiting lists.
He joined CBM in 2000 as head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Tanzania. Based in Tanzania for over a decade, Anthony ran a post graduate programme in ophthalmology and a fellowship programme for Vitreo-Retinal surgeons. He guided the growth of the eye department including its selection as one of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) regional training centres.
During this time he was Medical Advisor to CBM for Tanzania. (2008 -2011).
Anthony was a founding member of Eastern African College of Ophthalmologists and part of the leadership which developed a new curriculum and exam structure for Eastern Africa based on the ICO curriculum.
He is currently a Vitreo-Retinal Surgeon in Newcastle and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Newcastle.
Committees
RANZCO International Development Committee (IDC) Chair
Anthony became Chair of RANZCO’s IDC in 2014. He is keen to draw upon experience gained developing the goals and principles of Vision 2020 in Eastern Africa while leading the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College and working with the Eastern African College of Ophthalmologists. He hopes to use this experience to work with the IDC to help guide RANZCO’s development strategy.
Governance
RANZCO Council
Vision 2020: Global Committee
Board of Directors: Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology - 2015 to date.
Director of Newcastle Eye Hospital Research Foundation - 2012- to date.
Mr Andrew Harris
Andrew Harris is a wellknown Melbourne optometrist registered by the Optometry Board of Australia since 1990. Andrew has owned and run his own optometry practice in North Melbourne since 1992.
Andrew has a depth of experience as an optometrist and leader of the optometry sector having been involved in optometry leadership at both the state and federal level, including:
· Immediate Past National President of Optometry Australia: 2007-2014.
· Past Optometry Australia director: 1999-2000 and 2004-2014.
· Past Optometry Victoria President: 2001-2005.
· Past Optometry Victoria Director: 1996-2015.
· Member of the National Vision Research Institute Board: 2006-2010.
· Past Australian College of Optometry President: 2010-2011.
· Past Councillor of the Australian College of Optometry: 2010-2016.
· Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors: 2008.
Ms Karen Hayes
Karen has extensive general management, human resources and strategic consulting experience in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Canada, the United States and many European countries.
Appointed as CEO of Guide Dogs in November 2011, Karen is responsible for leading the Victorian division of Guide Dogs Australia, who were recently voted “The Most Trusted Charity in Australia”, for the fourth year in a row, by the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand poll.
Prior to joining Guide Dogs Victoria, Karen was the Director, Corporate Engagement and Human Capital with UXC Limited, an ASX300 company and the largest Australian owned ICT Company in the country.
Karen was previously CEO for Planpower, a dominant player in the project management and business consulting arena and one of 10 Business Units of the UXC Group.
She is a past finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards, was a founder and Board member of the Breast Cancer Network Australia until April 2013 and spent 8 years as a Board member of the Melbourne Football Club from 2006 to 2013.
Karen is currently a Board member of Vision 2020 Australia and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and is the President of the VU Western Spurs Women’s Football Club.
Mr John Howie AM
John Howie is an experienced barrister and solicitor with more than 45 years’ experience working in the legal profession.
John has served as an independent member on the Board of Vision 2020 Australia since November 2013. His knowledge and guidance have also proved invaluable during his tenure as Chair, Corporate and Governance Committee since February 2014. During this time the Committee has addressed important governance issues for Vision 2020 Australia, including the admission of corporate members; regular reviews of the Governance Charter; review of all organisational policies and procedures; oversight of strategic plan development tools; and a health check of the Vision 2020 Australia Board.
His extensive governance experience includes currently holding the positions of Chair, Avoca Project; Deputy Chair, Monsalvat Ltd; and Board member, The John Cain Foundation. Previously, John was the Chair, Victorian Legal Aid (2001-2011); Chair, Legal Fees and Cost Reimbursement Committee (Victorian Department of Justice – 2001-2011); President, Film Victoria (2003-2011) Board member, Latrobe University Law School Professional Advisory Board; Board member, Melbourne Olympic Park Trust (2001-2011) and Chair, Sports Federation of Victoria (2002-2008).
Ms Maureen O’Keefe
Maureen is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian College of Optometry and has nearly 25 years’ experience working in the education, health and research sectors, including as Chief Operating Officer of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and General Manager/Director roles at the University of Melbourne.
Maureen is an experienced Board Director, holding positions on a number of not for profit and government boards over the past 15 years. She currently holds Board Director appointments on the Vision 2020 Australia Board (since 2013) and is chair of the Audit and Finance Committee; is Deputy Chair of the BioMelbourne Network Board (since 2011) and is chair of the Remuneration, Nominations and Human Resources Committee; and is a Board Member of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology (since 2015).
Previously Maureen was a Board Member of the Victorian Health Minister’s Research Clinical Trial Consultative Council (2014-2016) and Victorian Cancer Agency Consultative Council (2007-2012) and Very Special Kids (2001-2006).
Maureen has an undergraduate Honours Degree in Science, a postgraduate diploma in education and a Masters in Business Administration. She completed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) executive education program in 2011.
Maureen became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2006 and is a graduate of the Williamson Community Leadership Program.
Maureen is passionate about good governance and dedicated to the goals of Vision 2020 Australia including the elimination of avoidable blindness and vision loss through prevention, early detection, intervention and improved awareness.
Board of Directors nominees biographies / 5