President - Professor Nathan Efron BScOptom, PhD, DSc, FAAO (Dip CCLRT) FIACLE FCCLSA FBCLA FACO

Nathan Efron completed his BScOptom and PhD at the University of Melbourne in 1981, and after two years of post-doctoral studies in Berkeley, USA and Sydney, he returned to Melbourne as lecturer then senior lecturer responsible for contact lens education.  In 1990 he took up the foundation Chair of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester, England, and established a contact lens research and consultancy unit known as Eurolens Research. In Manchester, he served as Head of Department from 1992-97 and Dean of Research for the university from 2001-2004, and was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Science in 1995.  Professor Efron returned to Australia in 2006 and joined the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation in the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), as Research Professor. At QUT he established the Anterior Eye Laboratory where, as well as continuing his contact lens research, he has been exploring a range of novel ophthalmic markers of diabetic neuropathy. Professor Efron has attracted significant peer-reviewed competitive funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, George Weaber Trust and American Optometric Foundation.  He is currently President of the Australian College of Optometry and a member of the Board of Administration of the National Vision Research Institute of Australia, and has previously served as President of both the Cornea and Contact Lens Society of Australia (1981) and the British Contact Lens Association (1997).  He lectures extensively world-wide, particularly in the field of the ocular response to contact lens wear, and has published over 750 scientific papers, abstracts and textbook chapters, and has written/edited 7 books that have appeared in a total of 15 editions and foreign translations. His most recent title is ‘Contact Lens Complications, 3rd Edition’ (Elsevier, 2012). Professor Efron has won a number of prestigious international awards, including the ‘Contribution to Optics’ award (Optician, UK, 1997), the British Contact Lens Association’s Dallos Award (1992) and Gold Medal (2001), the Peter Abel Award (Association of German Contact Lens Specialists, 2000), and the American Academy of Optometry’s Garland W Clay Award (1980), Max Schapero Award (2003) and Glenn A Fry Award (2010).
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Mr. Harris was elected to Council in 2010 and held the position of President until January 2012.  Mr. Harris was President of the Optometrists Association of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and resumed that role late in 2011.  Mr. Harris has served on the boards of both the National and State Divisions of the OAA over the last fifteen years.  Mr. Harris has also been a board member of the National Vision Research Institute from 2006 until 2012.  Mr, Harris' career highlights include working as a Senior Clinician at the University of Melbourne Department of Vision Sciences, as a Consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital eye clinic and in Aboriginal communities in outback NSW.  Mr. Harris has run his own private optometry practice in North Melbourne for the past 20 years.
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Mr.Fuller was appointed to Council in 2010.  He is a member of the Clinical Services committee. Bryan has previously served on the council of the OAA (Victorian Division), and is a current board member of the ProVision Eyecare Group.  He has been a provider to the Victorian Eyecare Service since its inception.  He is a partner in an independent optometry practice in Echuca.
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Professor Konrad Pesudovs BScOptom PhD PGDipAdvClinOptom MCOptom GAICD FACO FAAO FCCLSA

Professor Pesudovs was elected to Council in 2010.  He is the Foundation Chair of Optometry and Vision Science at Flinders University.  He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  His past governance experience includes roles as a Councillor of the SA Division of the Optometrists Association of Australia from 1992-1996, as Vice President from 1993. Professor Pesudovs was also on the committee of the SA Chapter of the Contact Lens Society of Australia from 1993-2000, President between 1994-1996.  Professor Pesudovs is a member of the editorial boards of eight professional journals including Optometry and Vision Science.
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Ms Elisse Higginbotham BOptom MOptom PGCertOcTher

Ms. Higginbotham was elected to Council during 2011.  She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2002, after which she completed a Masters degree from the University of NSW (and her therapeutics qualification.)  She worked for four years in central Victoria, before moving to her current position in a suburban private practice in 2006, where she works primarily with paediatric patients. In addition to her role in private practice, she undertakes sessional work and works as a clinical educator at the College.  She is currently undertaking her ACBO Fellowship.
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Professor Robert Saint BSc (Hons) PhD

Professor Saint was appointed to Council in 2009, as the representative from the University of Melbourne. Professor Saint gained his BSc(Hons) and PhD degrees from the University of Adelaide and then worked as a Research Fellow at Stanford University. On returning to Australia, he worked as a scientist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Inst. and CSIRO before moving to the University of Adelaide, where he pioneered research into cell cycle control during animal development. In1994 he was appointed Professor and Head of Genetics at the University of Adelaide before moving to the ANU as Professor of Molecular Genetics and Evolution in the Research School of Biological Sciences. He served on the ARC Biological Sciences Panel from 1995-1997 and was an ARC Special Investigator from 1997-1999. From 2000- 2008 he was Director of the ARC Special Research Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development (CMGD). He is a Member of the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network and was awarded the Julian Wells Medal of the Lorne Genome Conference and the President's medal of the Aust. New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology. He was also the MJD White lecturer of the Genetics Society of Australasia. He is a member of the ARC College of Experts (2008-2010) and was Chair of the ARC Biological Science and Biotechnology panel in 2009. His research centres on the genetic regulation of cell division and cell migration during animal development.  Professor Saint is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. 
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Alex Gentle PhD

Alex studied for his undergraduate optometry degree at City University, London and completed pre-registration training, leading to his professional optometric qualifications, at Moorfields Eye Hospital. His PhD studies, undertaken at the university of Wales, Cardiff, and his post-doctural research, at the University of Melbourne, reflect his interest in the mechanisms and manifestations of ocular and refractive development and scleral biochemistry.

Alex underwent his clinical ocular therapeutics training soon after being appointed to a lecturing position at the University of Melbourne.  Since then, his teaching duties have spanned the basic ocular biological sciences, ocular disease and thereapeutics, as well as clinical optometry.  As a result of his interest in optometric education, Alex completed a Graduate Certificate in University Teaching, also at the University of Melbourne.

A continuing interest in ocular therapeutics led Alex to serve on the Prescribing Practices Advisory Committee of the Optometrists Registration Board of Victoria, then on the ORBV itself, and most recently, on the Scheduled Medicines Advisory Committee of the Optometry Board of Australia.  Alex was appointed to Deakin University in 2012, where he holds the Chair in Vision Science and is Director of Optometric Pre-Clinical Studies in the School of Medicine (Optometry).
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Professor Ted Maddess 

Prof Maddess’ original areas of interest were the optics of eyes and the adaptive neurophysiology of vision. Following several years working on animal models he ventured into the area of visual psychophysics and glaucoma resulting in the commercialisation of the FDT/Matrix perimeters for which he received the Clunies Ross Science and Technology Award in 2002. That work commenced a period of involvement with commercialisation and biotechnology. This included being the Head of the Biotechnology Transfer Unit (1999 to 2011) of his former ANU institute, the Research School of Biology; and Board member (2001 to 2004) of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (ACIPA). He was also on the Board of the ACT chapter of Biotech Australia and represented the ANU and the ACT government at the international BIO industry meetings (2001 to 2004). Prof Maddess has been a consultant to government (DSTO, DEST) and industry (Welsh Allen, Seeing Machines, EyeCo).

On the Academic side Prof Maddess has been a principle organiser of 22 national and international vision related conferences and symposia since 2000. He has been on the Editorial Board of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology since 2001. He became a member of the NHMRC Academy of Assigners in 2012. Since 2003 Prof Maddess has been chief investigator on grants worth $22 million. His research interests include adaptation to image motion, eye movements, illusions of brightness and scale, and for the last decade, discrimination of complex textures. An abiding interest has been the design of multifocal methods for functional assessment of the visual fields. Most recently this has translated into multifocal pupillographic objective perimetry (mfPOP), which he is developing with his colleague Dr Andrew James and Seeing Machines Ltd. They are currently attempting to improve mfPOP for use in diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, and glaucoma. He was elected for two 2-year terms (2007-2011) as Head of the ANU Centre for Visual Sciences. Since 2010 he has been Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, a consortium of researchers at the ANU, U Melb, UQ, U Sydney, and UWA. Prof Maddess joined the NVRI Board of Administration in 2011.
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Ms Maureen O'Keefe MBA MAICD BSc Dip Ed
ACO Chief Executive Officer 

Maureen O'Keefe was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the ACO in March 2013.  Maureen is highly qualified, holding an MBA, a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Diploma in Education.  In addition, Maureen is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  Maureen has spent her career in higher education, research and health organisations and has more than fifteen years experience in senior executive roles.  Maureen was a member of the Council of the Victorian Cancer Agency for 6 years, including 2 years as member of the Clinical Translation Working Group.  Maureen left her role as Chief Operating Officer with the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Research, where she had worked for the past seven years, to join the ACO. 
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Ms Clare Escott ACA MAICD BSc Hons
ACO GM Finance & Corporate Services, Company Secretary

Clare Escott was appointed as General Manager Finance & Corporate Services and Company Secretary in December 2010.  Clare is a qualified Chartered Accountant who has a wide range of experience, having worked in both private practice and the public sector over the last 20 years.   Most recently Clare held the position of Director of Corporate Services for North Down Borough Council, a local authority in Northern Ireland.  In this role, she headed up a team of over 50 staff and was responsible for leading the delivery of Finance, Human Resources, ICT, Procurement and Member Support activities across all Council Departments.  
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