Board of Trustees

After graduating in economics from London University in the mid-60s, Dick worked in marketing with blue chip companies in the UK for around ten years. In 1974 he moved into management consultancy, working principally in the fields of development economics and the environment. Dick worked for several specialist firms, and worked and lived extensively overseas throughout Africa, the Indian sub-continent and south-east Asia. Much of this work was undertaken on behalf of major international development and funding organisations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and ODA/DFID (UK government).

In 1984 Dick joined KPMG, the international accountancy and management consultancy firm and became a partner in the consultancy practice of its London office. Here he had responsibility for a portfolio of clients/projects in respect of economics and general business strategy.

Ten years later, in 1994 he decided to join the not-for-profit sector and became CEO of Sight Savers International (SSI). SSI is a leading NGO working for the elimination of avoidable blindness in the developing world. He was responsible for overseeing a major reorganisation of the charity and revamping its strategy and programme policies. During his eleven years at SSI the business greatly expanded with income increasing from under £7million to in excess of £20million.

In 2005, Dr Nag Rao, the executive chairman of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) asked Dick if he would join as the Director of the organisation. IAPB represents its member organisations and one of its principal roles is to work with its members and the World Health Organisation in the execution of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative. This is a global partnership initiative with which Dick had considerable involvement in both its development and subsequent roll out. When Dr Rao's period of office finished in September 2008, Dick also decided to take retirement.

Howard Davies joined The Fred Hollows Foundation (UK) as a Trustee in 2007, after being involved in The Fred Hollows Foundation in Australia for many years.

Howard first became involved with The Fred Hollows Foundation in Australia in 1995 when he was invited to be a member of the Business Forum Executive Committee and then the coordinator of the Business Forum campaign, which encouraged corporate involvement in the work of The Foundation.

In Australia, Howard is Treasurer of the Board of The Foundation, Chair of the Finance and Governance Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee.

Howard began his career in 1965, operating in the United Kingdom with the Hogg Robinson Group specialising in credit and political risk insurance broking. Howard's career developed into senior management positions, which culminated in the Chairmanship of the UK Retail Insurance Broking Division of the Hogg Robinson Group, the UK's third largest insurance broker. This appointment extended to involve running the groups investments in more than 40 countries around the world.

Howard's 32 years with Hogg Robinson also saw him heading the International Division of the Group before moving to Australia in 1988, to found the Asia Pacific Region and head the Australian Group.

In 1996 Howard resigned from Hogg Robinson and formed his own specialist extended warranty insurance broking business in Australia - IMC Associates Pty Ltd - the only business of its kind in Australasia.

Since then Howard has built a portfolio of Non-Executive Chairmanships and Directorships which have included companies such as AT&T, Safetrade Limited, Newcastle Port Corporation and, currently, GAB Robins - Australia's largest firm of Loss Adjusters. He is also on the Board of the Government owned Export Finance and Insurance Corporation and has also formed an insurance broking business in Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Jennifer is a Partner and Head of Fund Investor Relations at 3i.

Since joining 3i in June 2005 she has co-led the acquisition of the Mayborn Group and co-led the take privates of Telecity Group and Redbus to create TelecityRedbus. In November 2007 she was responsible for the acquisition of Agent Provocateur. She currently sits on the boards of Mayborn, Agent Provocateur and Hobbs.

Prior to joining 3i Jennifer spent nine years at Terra Firma Capital Partners and Nomura’s Principal Finance Group (PFG), where she was Managing Director. In addition to numerous portfolio responsibilities, major deals that she led there include the privatisation of Angel Train Contracts and acquisition of Inn Partnership. Before PFG/Terra Firma, Jennifer started her career as a solicitor for Allen, Allen & Hemsley in Sydney and London. She holds a BA degree and LLB from the University of Sydney.

Andrew Neill has worked in the City of London for most of his working life and spent 2½ years in Sydney on assignment in the 1980's. In 1998 he formed his own company which continued his insurance broking activity. He remains a director of the company.

Andrew's main work in the charitable area has related to music. For 16 years he was Chairman of the Elgar Society (the largest musical society in Britain) and has been a trustee of the Elgar Birthplace for 25 years. He is also Chairman of the Richard Strauss Society and is closely involved with the Joyce and Michael Kennedy award for the Singing of Strauss at the Royal Northern College in Manchester. Andrew is a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society (he was a member of the Council for 8 years) and writes about music for a number of periodicals.

Michael Wills has had a lifelong commitment to international cooperation going back to his time as a Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) volunteer teacher in south India. He is the founder of Oxford HR Consultants Ltd, an executive search and selection firm serving the international development and social enterprise sectors.

Michael has worked extensively across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He started his career as an international publisher with IPC and McGraw-Hill before joining the staff of VSO as country director for Malawi and then Indonesia. After VSO he managed a variety of international development programmes focused firstly on education, and then health sector social marketing as one of the founding team developing the wearer adjustable adaptive spectacles with Adaptive Eyecare. He has also worked as a consultant to the Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank and UNESCO.

He is a Member of the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Development Studies Association and the Council for Education in the Commonwealth.