Our board members are a talented and diverse lot. They have extraordinary skills and experience in a wide range of sectors, both public and private. This ensures The Foundation takes a well-rounded approach to everything we do and the decisions we make as an organisation.
Our directors are responsible for providing strategic direction and governance, ensuring effective financial and risk management oversight and continued organisational viability and sustainability. Also, and perhaps most importantly, they’re custodians of Fred Hollows’ legacy and reputation.
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Jane Madden (Chair)
Director since 2021
Jane joined the Board in 2021, having been a long-term supporter of the Foundation. Jane is an accomplished non-executive director with over fifteen years’ experience as chair and member of boards and committees across government, business and the not-for-profit sector. She is currently on the boards of the National Foundation for Australian Women (President), Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and Australian Business Volunteers (ABV), as well as serving on advisory committees for Black Dog Institute, ACT Health and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Jane held positions at the most senior levels of the Commonwealth Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Industry, and Prime Minister and Cabinet. She led a highly successful diplomatic career, including as Ambassador to UNESCO Paris, Counsellor, Australian Embassy, Tokyo and assignments in Asia, Africa and Pacific. In other public sector roles, she was the Deputy Secretary of Austrade and the Chief Operating Officer, Digital Transformation Office in the Prime Minister’s Department. Throughout her career, Jane has been involved with a broad range of development and Indigenous organisations. Jane is the founder and Principal of a Canberra advisory firm specialising in strategy, capability and international business development, and also works as an executive coach to private and public sector leaders.
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Helen Evans AO (Co-Deputy Chair)
Director since 2015
Helen is an expert in public health, social policy and development with a special focus on infectious diseases. She has been involved in a range of national and international health and development organisations. Based in Geneva from 2005 until her retirement in 2014, Helen was Deputy Executive Director at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and then Deputy CEO at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In the early 1990s Helen managed the National Communicable Diseases Program in the Australian Department of Health. For seven years prior to moving to take up her position as deputy at The Global Fund she headed up the Australian Government’s Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
Helen is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health. She is Vice-Chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a member of the Australian Government’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security Technical Reference Group, a Board member of the Burnet Institute and of the Australian Global Health Alliance.
Helen is the Chair of The Board's Programs and Partnerships Committee and a Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation (USA).
Michael had a close relationship with Fred Hollows and was one of the team that set up The Foundation. He has served as a board member since its establishment in 1992. Michael has extensive experience as a professional economist, educator and researcher as well as engaging in the practical work of delivering development programs. He is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW and a Life Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He is an Editor of the research and policy journal, the Economic and Labour Relations Review published by Sage. In 2015, Michael was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the blind and vision impaired, to education, and to the community. Michael serves as a member of the Board’s Governance and Nominations Committee and Programs and Partnerships Committee, as well as Deputy Chair of the Foundation. He is also a Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation (HK) Limited, The Fred Hollows Foundation Kenya, and The Fred Hollows Foundation (UK).
Nicki Anderson FAICD
Director since 2022
Nicki joined the Board in May 2022 with a strong link to Hollows through her uncle, an ophthalmic surgeon who specialised in cataract surgery and corneal grafting, and throughout her childhood would talk about sight changing surgery he’d done at the eye camps in Bihar India and about Fred Hollows.
Nicki has over 25 years’ experience working in Oceania, Asia, Europe and America and has hands on leadership experience in strategy, sales/fundraising, marketing, customer experience and innovation within the humanitarian, food, beverage, consumer goods and agribusiness sectors. In addition to her significant leadership roles in the commercial sector, she was the Head of Major Donor Partnerships for over three years at Australian Red Cross and won the Persia Porter Scholarship in 2018.
Nicki is currently a Non-executive Director of ASX listed Graincorp and Collins Food, Deputy Chair of the Australian Made Campaign Limited, and Non-executive Director of the Craig Mostyn Group and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. She is former Chair & Member of the Monash University Advisory Board for the marketing faculty.
Nicki holds an Executive MBA from the University of NSW (AGSM), a Bachelor of Business (marketing major) from the University of Technology Sydney and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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Ruwan joined the Board in May 2019 after serving on the Fred Hollows Foundation’s Programs and Partnerships Committee from 2017. He has nearly 20 years’ experience in international development. Ruwan is a Chartered Accountant of the Institutes of England and Wales, and of Australia and New Zealand. From 2003 to 2014, Ruwan worked in the international development aid sector in Geneva, at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He was the Global Fund’s Director of Strategy for several years. Now Sydney based, Ruwan continues to contribute to the international humanitarian and development sectors and consults to a number of international organizations.
Katrina is a Wiradjuri woman with many years of leadership and public sector experience, and a strong commitment to making a difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. She is the Director of Coolamon Advisors, an Indigenous consulting firm. Katrina is the Deputy Chairperson of the Women’s Legal Centre in Canberra assisting women with access to justice support. A women’s rugby league pioneer, Katrina played the inaugural Jillaroos test in 1995, retiring as the most capped female player after 26 appearances for Australia. Katrina was the 2020 ACT Australian of the Year and has been awarded a Public Service Medal. In 2022 Katrina was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to the Indigenous community through education and health initiatives, and to sport. She is a member of the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee.
Dr Michelle Gayer
Director since 2023
Dr Michelle Gayer (MBBS MPH GradDipEc) is a global expert in public health in emergencies. Her career over the last 25 years has been devoted to ensuring evidence-based public health interventions for vulnerable populations. She has worked in Australia as a clinician, including in remote areas of New South Wales, and internationally for MSF (Doctors Without Borders), the IRC (International Rescue Committee), and WHO (World Health Organization), evolving from technical, operational and policy, to senior management and leadership roles.
With MSF she worked in conflict zones in Sub-Saharan Africa over 1999-2002, including as Country Director. Her roles at WHO Headquarters from 2003-2016 included coordinating WHO’s Disease Control in Emergencies Programme, Director of WHO’s Emergency Department, and Director of Emergency Reform. From 2016, as Emergency Health Director, Michelle led IRC’s global programs in Health, WASH & Nutrition, and later all multi-sector emergency programming, including protection, economic recovery & livelihoods, as well as leadership for COVID-19 response across 50+ countries. In 2022, she has supported WHO in its Ukraine response.
Michelle has published international standards & guidelines on infectious disease control in emergencies, deployed to numerous conflict and disaster settings to provide technical advice and build capacity of governments & partners on public health strategy, disease surveillance, risk assessment, epidemic preparedness and response. She has also served on bodies such as WHO’s Ethics Review Committee, ELHRA’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Funding Committee, and as Associate Professor, University of NSW School of Public Health & Community Medicine, and Associate, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Michelle is a member of The Foundation’s Programs and Partnerships Committee.
Anthony joined the Board in May 2019 and prior to this served as an independent member of the Programs and Partnerships Committee from 2018.
Anthony completed a Master of General Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, where he won a medal for community medicine. He ran a small eye program in his birth country of Lesotho and spent 12 years in the UK training to be an ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon.
Anthony was Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Tanzania, helping to train ophthalmologists and unifying standards across East Africa. He also established a vitreoretinal fellowship training program.
Christine was elected to the Board in 2015 after serving as an independent member of the Finance and Audit Committee from November 2010. Originally an economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia, Christine spent her senior executive career as a corporate adviser in investment banking, specialising in capital markets and financial structuring. In 1997, she established Cinnabar International Pty Limited, which provides advice on effective governance for companies. Christine's reputation in governance leadership is maintained through her position as Board and Governance Principal with Directors Australia, and a number of board roles. In addition, she holds several appointments as Chair and member of State government audit and risk committees and is Chair of a private higher education institute. Christine is the Chair of the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee, a member of the Governance and Nomination Committee and Chair of The Fred Hollows Foundation Kenya.
Gabi is the Founding Director and has served on the Board since its establishment. She graduated as an orthoptist in 1972 and travelled with Fred Hollows for three years on the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. Gabi married Fred in 1980 and together they had five children. In 2013 Gabi was invested as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her work as an advocate for the eradication of blindness, she was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International, and in 1998 was declared one of Australia’s ‘100 Living National Treasures’. Gabi has been the recipient of numerous awards including: the Centenary Medal (2003), the Rotary International Inspirational Women Award (2011), an Honorary Doctorate in Health Science from Sydney University (2012), the Advance Australia Award for Community Service, the Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Asia Medal (2014), the United Nations Association of Australia Peace Program Lifework Award (2017), the John Yu Medal by the George Institute for Global Health (2018) and she was the Impact 2025 Collaboration Award winner (2021).
Gabi is the Patron of The Fred Hollows Foundation Regular Giving Program and undertakes extensive speaking engagements for The Foundation. She is a member of the Board’s Governance and Nominations Committee and the Programs and Partnerships Committee.
Tina joined the board in May 2022, and has over 25 years of experience in Corporate, Financial Services and Non-Profit organizations. She has held several C-suite roles, responsible for driving major change and transformation agendas across both the business and technology domains. Her international experience working in the US, Australia, and Singapore has provided a unique perspective of the business functions, regulatory, controls, and opportunity landscape across diverse disciplines, geographies, and cultures. Tina has recently founded her own company Unbeatable You, with the vision to provide career inspiration, guidance, motivation, and advice to the talent of the future. She also serves on a number of Boards including Empowered Women in Trade, Hume Bank, FATS Projects Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC); and an Advisory Board Member of MaxMe, an innovative human skills development company.
Tina is a Chartered Accountant and Australia Institute of Company Directors GAICD.
Life Members
- Nigel Milan AM
- Dr Graham Fraenkel
- Ray Martin AM
- Gabi Hollows AO
- Howard Davies
- Michael Johnson AM
Past Directors
The Fred Hollows Foundation was first incorporated as an association in February 1992 and later registered as a public company limited by guarantee in August 1995.
Since then, the following people have served as Directors of The Fred Hollows Foundation Board:
- Gordon Briscoe, AO 1995 – 1999
- Minas Coroneo, AO 1995 – 1996
- John Dawkins, AO 1995 – 2003
- Michael Johnson, AM 1995 – 2005, 2006 – 2016
- Ray Martin, AM 1995 – 2002
- Russell Rollason, AM 1995 – 1998
- Victoria Rubensohn, AM 1995 – 2005
- Jeffrey Rushton, AM 1995 – 1996
- Professor Hugh Taylor, AC 1995 – 2004
- Professor Mark Gillies, 1996 – 2006
- Nigel Milan, AM 1997 – 2007
- Fessehaie Abraham 1998 – 2006
- Howard Davies 1998 – 2012
- Tim Fischer, AC 1999 – 2003
- Brent Impey 2001 – 2005, 2009 – 2013
- Sharon Galleguillos 2002 – 2006
- Shelley Reys, AO 2003 – 2008
- Andrew Want 2003 – 2010
- Robert (Bob) Dalziel 2004 – 2014
- Sarah Elliot 2005 – 2013
- Dr. David Moran 2005 – 2010
- John Richardson, OAM 2005 – 2008
- John McElhinney 2006 – 2009
- Stephanie Young 2006 – 2012
- Phillip Brown 2007 – 2009
- Mary Kostakidis 2008 – 2011
- Romlie Mokak 2008 – 2011
- Les Fallick 2010 - 2018
- Graham Skeates 2010 - 2019
- Dr Jamie La Nauze 2010 - 2019
- Peter Hearl 2011 – 2012
- Kathy Farrell 2013 – 2015
- Ann Porcino 2013 – 2016
- Joy Savage 2013 - 2019
- Paul Torzillo AM 2012 - 2021
- The Hon. John Brumby AO 2013 - 2021
- Paul Ruiz 2019 - 2022
- Marten Touw 2022 - 2023