Australian Board of Directors
Jane Madden (Chair)
Director since 2021
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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.
Michael Johnson AM (Co-Deputy Chair)
Director since 2018
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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, People and Culture Committee and Programs and Partnerships Committee, as well as Deputy Chair of the Foundation. He is also a Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation Kenya, and The Fred Hollows Foundation (UK). |
Tina Wyer (Co-Deputy Chair)
Director since 2022
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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.
Nicki Anderson FAICD
Director since 2022
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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.
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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. Nicki is a member of The Board’s Governance, People and Culture Committee.
Thomas Ching
Director since 2024
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Since 2018, Thomas has been a dedicated supporter of the Fred Hollows Foundation, drawn to Dr. Fred Hollows' story and the pressing issue of avoidable blindness both in China and globally. His commitment grew over time, leading him to join the Hong Kong Advisory Board and later become the inaugural local director of The Fred Hollows Foundation (HK) Limited in 2019. Thomas is also deeply involved in advancing higher education. He played a role in the establishment of the first executive master's degree in insurance in Hong Kong. Currently, he contributes as a member of the Fundraising and Donation Committee at Hang Seng University and serves as the Honorary Vice Chairman of the University's Foundation. |
With over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, Thomas founded Consolidated Marketing Group International Wealth Management Limited in 2005, offering tailored life insurance solutions to clients of banks and major financial institutions. In 2021, he co-founded SW Family Office Limited in partnership with one of China's largest accounting firms. Thomas holds an executive master’s degree in insurance.
Ruwan de Mel
Director since 2019
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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 Fanning PSM AO
Director since 2019
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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
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 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. Michelle is the Chair of The Board’s Programs and Partnerships Committee.
Dr Anthony Hall
Director since 2019
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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.
Gabi Hollows AO
Director since 1992
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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.
Celebrating Past Leaders
The Foundation is grateful to have been supported by many people since it was founded in 1992. Discover below some of the individuals whose leadership and contributions have helped shape The Foundation and made a lasting impact.
Global Leadership
Founding Director
Gabi Hollows
Meet the heart and soul of The Foundation, Gabi Hollows. She is an extraordinary woman: a national treasure, an Order of Australia recipient, a skilled orthoptist and the champion of The Fred Hollows Foundation.
Gabi knows a little about having eye problems. She had eye surgery when she was three years old and while it sparked her interest in medicine, little did she know this was the beginning of what was to become her lifelong work.
CEO
Ian Wishart
Ian Wishart is one of Australia’s most experienced international development leaders. He has spent the past 28 years involved in virtually every aspect of aid and human rights including emergency relief operations, long term development and influential policy and advocacy initiatives.
Ian joined The Fred Hollows Foundation as its new CEO on March 5, 2018.
