Featured Leaders

Gabi Hollows

AO

Gabi is the Founding Director and has served on the Board since its establishment. She graduated as an orthoptist in 1972 and traveled 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 in the Order of Australia and has been declared one of Australia’s ‘100 Living National Treasures’. In 2017, Gabi was awarded the United Nations Association of Australia Peace Program Lifework Award.

In 2018, she was awarded the John Yu Medal by The George Institute for Global Health for her contribution to preventable blindness in Australia and Asia. 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.

Ian Wishart

CEO

Ian joined The Fred Hollows Foundation in March 2018 from Plan International Australia, where he had been CEO since 2001.
 

Ian led Plan International Australia’s transformation from a $10m operation into a $63m organization. He also served in the global leadership of the Plan International federation, as both chair of their national CEO team and on their global management committee, and oversaw the organization’s successful market entry into Hong Kong.
 

Ian started his development career at World Vision Australia, initially as an emergency relief officer deployed to the major emergency hot spots of the early 1990s. Later, he managed the humanitarian response team before spending three years as World Vision’s Country Director in Laos, after which he served as an advisor to the CEO.
 

Ian’s country experience is extremely diverse and includes such places as Cambodia, Laos, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan and Rwanda.

THE HON. JOHN BRUMBY

AO CHAIR:

John joined The Foundation’s Board in 2013 and was elected Chair in February 2016. He is well-known for his roles as the Premier of the Australian state of Victoria from 2007 to 2010 and as Treasurer from 2000 to 2007. 

 

Since retiring from politics, John has become the Chair of notable Australian organizations including MTAA Super, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. 

 

John was appointed Chancellor of La Trobe University from 29 March 2019 and is an Enterprise Professor at the University of Melbourne. John is the Chair of the Board’s Governance and Nominations Committee, The Fred Hollows Foundation (HK) Limited and The Fred Hollows Foundation (USA).

AMY K. DACEY

CO-CHAIR: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SINE INSTITUTE OF POLICY & POLITICS AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

For more than two decades, Amy Dacey managed prominent national organizations, advised leading elected officials and candidates, including President Barack Obama and Senator John Kerry, and counseled a variety of nonprofits and companies.
Before joining AU, Amy was President of AKD Strategies, a strategic firm working with non-profits, and Foundations in the progressive policy space.


During the 2016 presidential election, she served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic National Committee. During the 2004 elections, she worked for then-Senator John Kerry on his presidential campaign and, following his narrow loss, helped to lead Kerry’s political operation. She also managed Rep. Louise Slaughter’s congressional campaign in 1998.


From 2010 to 2013, Amy served as Executive Director of EMILY’s List, the organization dedicated to electing Democratic women to national, state, and local offices, and led the organization’s revitalization, restructuring and rebranding efforts. In addition, she served in various leadership positions for several other organizations, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Fund for America, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Recently, Amy served as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for MWWPR, one of the world's top independent public relations agencies. Amy is on the board of U.S.-Mexico Foundation.

HELEN EVANS

AO DEPUTY CHAIR:

Helen is an expert in public health and social policy with a special focus on infectious diseases. She has been involved in diverse Australian and international health and development organizations. 

 

Based in Geneva from 2005 until her retirement in 2014, Helen was Deputy CEO at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and then at Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. 

 

Helen is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health. She is a member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,  the Australian Government’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security Technical Reference Group, and a board member of the Burnet Institute. Helen is the Chair of the Board’s Programs and Partnerships Committee and a Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation (USA).

JANE OHUMA

COUNTRY MANAGER: KENYA, RWANDA & BURUNDI

Jane Ohuma is a medical humanitarian aid worker with 23 years of experience in international humanitarian aid and development. 

 

She has served as the dynamic country manager of The Fred Hollows Foundation in Kenya since August 2011. In her role, she is responsible for positioning The Foundation as a leading international development organization, working towards putting eye health in Africa on the global agenda. 

 

Jane was a Public Health Nurse graduate and has worked in international humanitarian and development programs, spanning across refugee and internally displaced persons’ camps in Kenya, Eastern Europe, Eritrea and Sudan.

 

Before joining The Fred Hollows Foundation, Jane served in such positions as the Country Director in International Medical Corps (IMC) in Eritrea, the Head of Mission for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in Sudan in Jerusalem and Morocco, as well as the Primary Health Advisor for the Mercy Corps in Kosovo. 

 

She also was employed by International Rescue Committee (IRC) in it’s Kenya office, where she led the capacity building effort for over 120 medical professions at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. 

DR. WONDU ALEMAYEHU

Senior ophthalmologist and The Foundation's technical advisor in Ethiopia

Dr. Wondu Alemayehu has dedicated his career to eliminating trachoma, the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness. Based in Addis Abada, where he leads a consultancy company, Dr. Wondu trains others, researches, and implements programs in the fight against trachoma.

 

Dr. Wondu’s work in the field began more than 30 years ago as a resident of the department of ophthalmology at Addis Ababa University.

 

Since 2012, Dr Wondu has been assisting The Fred Hollows Foundation focus on the total elimination of trachoma. He has implemented antibiotic programs across the country, which in partnership with The Foundation, now cover 18 of the 20 rural zones of Ethiopia.

 

He contributes to the National Trachoma Taskforce, as well as the National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness, sharing his experiences globally while also learning from others.