Optometry Australia’s national president Mr Darrell Baker has stepped down after serving in the role since 2018, and retired from a 10-year stint on the national board of directors.
The board voted unanimously on 26 November to appoint former deputy president Mr Murray Smith as president. Smith was president of Optometry Victoria, leading its amalgamation with Optometry South Australia in 2018.
Ms Margaret Lam, from NSW, has been appointed deputy president. Ms Tori Halsey, from Tasmania, has retained the position of Treasurer.
Queensland optometrist Ms Fiona Moore and Victorian optometrist Mr Theo Charalambous join the national board as member directors while Ms Sarah Coudrey from Queensland has resigned from her position on the Optometry Australia board.
Message from outgoing president
In a video message announcing the end of his three-year term as president, Baker said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve the organisation’s members, but time had gone quickly, and he hadn’t completed all that he started and had hoped to achieve.
Among those was structural reform, a key goal of both the previous and current strategic period, in place until 2024.
Baker said the national board was in ongoing discussions with the organisation’s five state-level bodies about this “critical and challenging issue”.
“While we did start the conversation with divisional presidents on structural reform, it’s a dialogue that has not been finalised,” he said.
“I urge the presidents and the divisional boards to keep this firmly on the agenda as we owe it to the members and the profession to ensure we have the best possible structure to serve them now and into the future.”
Baker also reflected on the fact that for almost two of his three years as national president, the organisation has been assisting members to navigate COVID-19.
Optometry Australia was named the 2020 APAC Professional Association of the Year, with judges commending the body’s COVID-19 response.
“Despite our intense focus on providing COVID support, we have also managed to create exceptional value through innovating, expanding and enhancing [member] services,” he said.
In his term as president, he said membership had increased and now represents 85% of all OBA-registered optometrists in Australia.
The organisation has evolved, Baker said, and is “willing to take a strong stance when making decisions that may prove unpopular to others in the sector”.
It has also placed an unwavering focus on quality governance.
“Every director on the national board has either completed or is nearing completion of The Australian Institute of Company Directors course, the gold-standard in governance training and education,” Baker said.
In his role as president, Baker has also overseen major reforms, including the introduction of fixed terms for directors on the national board.
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