New Global CEO for Optometry Giving Sight
After 5 years as both Executive Chair and CEO of global fundraising organization, Optometry Giving Sight, Professor Brien Holden has stepped down as CEO and the Board has appointed Clive Miller. Mr Miller has been with the organization for three years, initially as the Director of Marketing and Fundraising and, for the past 2 years, as Deputy CEO.
Professor Holden will remain as Executive Chair and will continue to provide strategic direction and oversight to Optometry Giving Sight. The move is part of Professor Holden’s desire to empower his team.
“Optometry Giving Sight has reached the point where it needs a full-time CEO”, explained Professor Holden. “The acceptance of Optometry Giving Sight as Optometry’s International Charity of Choice in the US, Australia, Canada, the UK and Holland has been outstanding. The support from leading optometric corporations and thousands of optometrists, opticians, staff and patients, has already allowed Optometry Giving Sight to have a major impact in combating blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error. The recruitment of Optometry’s most outstanding leaders to head up National Optometry Giving Sight efforts such as Bob Lees in Australia, Vic Connors in the US, Bob Chappell in the UK, Scott Brisbin in Canada and Rob Gevers in Holland has resulted in remarkable advances. With Norway coming on board and the opportunity in the US especially, the CEO’s role needs to be expanded greatly and Clive has been chosen by the global Board as the right person for the next very important phase of growth.”
The Board and founding Partners, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), the World Optometry Foundation and the International Centre for Eyecare Education thank Professor Holden for his tireless efforts in nurturing and successfully developing Optometry Giving Sight into the only global fundraising organization that specifically targets the prevention of blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error. Under Professor Holden’s leadership more than US$2 million has been allocated to projects that fund eye exams and spectacles, training of local eye care professionals and the development of infrastructure such as vision centres and schools of optometry.
“The entire Optometry Giving Sight partnership and team is indebted to Brien for his vision, leadership and commitment”, commented Christian Garms, President of the IAPB and a Board member of Optometry Giving Sight. “But he is not off the hook entirely; we want him to stay as the leader of the Board with Executive responsibility for our growth”.
Mr Miller, who has been a fundraising professional for more than 20 years, said “It is a privilege to take over the operational management and aim to achieve Optometry Giving Sight’s vision of a world where no one is blind or vision impaired through lack of an eye examination and a pair of glasses. We have a great team and I look forward to tackling this very exciting role”.
Clive Miller has worked in the non government sector since 1987, primarily as the head of Fundraising and Marketing for the AIDS Trust of Australia, AUSTCARE, the Yothu Yindi Foundation, the Fred Hollows Foundation and UNSW Foundation. He has an MBA from University of Technology, Sydney.
