The Board is responsible for the broad strategic directions and key policies of The Fred Hollows Foundation, and for the overall governance and accountability of the organisation.

The Board meets quarterly and is currently comprised of 11 members elected annually at an annual general meeting in May each year.

Les Fallick (Chair)

Les Fallick was one of six children and grew up in a large ship building community near Glasgow on the west coast of Scotland. He became a lecturer in economics and fell in love with Australia during a short sabbatical at the University of New South Wales.

Les has worked in one of Australia’s largest unions as well as in government and the private sector. His current roles include founder and Executive Chairman of Principle Advisory Services Pty Ltd and Chairman of Miller & Associates (Australia). He also has considerable experience in the not-for-profit sector, most recently chairing the Carbon Advisory Board for Greening Australia.

As Chair of The Fred Hollows Foundation, Les is able to continue the social activism that has characterised his working life, satisfying his desire “to change things for the better, to give a bit back for all the fortune and opportunity I’ve had in my own life.”


Michael Johnson (Deputy Chair)

Director from 1992 to 2005; and then from 2006

Michael Johnson was born in Exeter, England and has a Master of Philosophy degree from Cambridge (UK). He moved to Australia in the mid 1970s and met Fred Hollows within 24 hours of arriving. Many years later, when The Foundation was being established, Fred asked Michael to help carry on his work.

Michael is a Director of The Foundation’s Board in Australia and South Africa and was the founding Director of the Eritrean Education and Training Fund at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

He is an associate professor in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at UNSW in Sydney and his area of interest is the transformation of the public sector at all levels of government.

Sarah Elliott (Honorary Secretary)

Director since 2005

Sarah Elliott first met Fred and Gabi Hollows in 1988, when she joined the Nepal Eye Program Australia (NEPA) after doing research in Nepal for her Master’s of Social Work and Social Policy.

Sarah worked for The Foundation from 1993 to 2003. She has managed the Nepal Program, playing a key role in the establishment of the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu, and been responsible for the Eritrea and Bangladesh programs. She also project managed The Foundation’s accreditation with AusAID (the Australian Government’s Agency for International Development).

Sarah now works as a Principal Policy Analyst (Product Strategy and Development) with the NSW Department of Housing.

Graham Skeates (Honorary Treasurer)

Director since 2009

Graham Skeates has worked in the accounting profession and the financial service industry for nearly 40 years and has been a friend of Fred Hollows and his family since the late 1970s.

Graham has been associated with The Foundation since its inception and became actively involved when he joined the Finance and Governance Committee in 2009.

Graham moved to Australia from London in 1976 and played a major role in the creation of the Financial Services Accountants Association of Australia. He spent 19 years at AMP in many roles, including Group Chief Accountant, and worked as Regional Finance Director for the Asian operations of Prudential Insurance UK.

Robert Dalziel 

Director since 2004

Robert (Bob) Dalziel has over 30 years experience in retail, logistics, travel, marketing, telecommunications and the health care industry. Bob is Chair of Colorado Group Ltd, and a Director of Loscam Ltd.

Previous roles include CEO of Mayne Nickless Ltd, Managing Director of Coles Myer, and Chair of Optus Communications and the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal.

Bob is heavily involved in rugby and served as a Director on the Australian Rugby Union board for three years until 2009. He is also a patron of Victorian Schoolboys Rugby Union and a member of the Australian Schools Rugby Foundation.

Howard Davies

Director since 1998

Howard Davies worked for the Hogg Robinson Group for 32 years in many senior management roles including Chair of the UK Retail Insurance Broking Division, running investments in 40 countries.

Howard joined The Foundation’s Business Forum Executive Committee in 1995 and became coordinator of the Business Forum campaign, which encouraged corporate involvement in the work of The Foundation.

Howard’s previous non-executive chairmanships and directorships include AT&T, and the Newcastle Port Corporation and, currently, GAB Robins and the government-owned Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.

Peter Hearl

Director since 2011

Gabi Hollows

Director since 1992

Founding Director Gabi Hollows has been a driving force behind The Fred Hollows Foundation since its inception. Gabi first met Fred Hollows during her orthoptics training (orthoptists specialise in disorders of eye movements and associated vision problems), before graduating in 1972.

In 1976 Gabi joined the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program (NTEHP), iniatiated and led by Fred and sponsored by the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists and the Australian Government. For three years, she and Fred visited over 465 remote Indigenous communities with a team of people, treating Indigenous Australians for trachoma and other painful eye conditions.

Gabi and Fred were married in 1980 and had five children. When Fred became sick with cancer, Gabi helped set up The Fred Hollows Foundation while looking after her husband and young family. Since Fred’s death on February 10, 1993 Gabi has continued to work tirelessly for The Foundation.

Gabi has received an Advance Australia Award for Community Service, a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International and has been named one of Australia’s 100 Living National Treasures.
 In 2003, she was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government. Gabi is a patron of the Life Force Cancer Foundation.

Brent Impey

Director since 2009

Brent Impey has been a leading media executive in New Zealand for many years and also has 15 years of experience as a lawyer specialising in media law. Brent is the interim Executive Director of The Foundation in New Zealand.

Brent says he identifies with The Foundation’s goal of building sustainability and is “forever amazed by the core work of The Foundation, namely the quality cataract surgery in developing countries, and affordable lenses”.

From 2000 to 2009 Brent was CEO of MediaWorks NZ Ltd, and from 1983 to 1998 he was Executive Director of the NZ Radio Broadcasters Association. In 1990 he was named ‘Broadcaster of the Decade’ and given the ‘Queens Commemorative Medal for services to broadcasting’.

Dr Jamie La Nauze

Director since 2010

Dr Jamie La Nauze is an ophthalmic surgeon who trained in Melbourne and Cambridge (UK).
 Jamie first met Fred during the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program in 1977 and continued the work of the program in remote areas of North Queensland during the 1980s and 1990s. He has also worked extensively throughout the South Pacific.

When The Fred Hollows Foundation was first established, Jamie, David Moran, Mark Gillies and Garry Brian formed The Foundation’s Medical Directorate. Jamie’s responsibilities included surgical training programs in Vietnam, Cambodia and China.

Jamie has a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO).

Dr Stephanie Young

Director since 2006

Dr Stephanie Young was a member of the last group of ophthalmologists to train with Fred Hollows, at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. During her training Stephanie operated with Fred in Bourke and on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.

Fred encouraged her to help develop a specialised clinic at the Prince of Wales Hospital and a screening service at Albion St AIDS Clinic.
 In 1992 and 1993 Stephanie was on a team from The Foundation that ran surgical skills transfer workshops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
 She also helped develop an illustrated procedure manual produced by The Foundation to assist in cataract operations.

After her initial training, Stephanie worked at the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem and undertook further training at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
 She is currently a Visiting Medical Officer at Concord Repatriation General Hospital.