Board Members
Graeme ClarkChairman
Professor Graeme Clark AC, initiated and led research at the University of Melbourne , with support from the Bionic Ear Institute, resulting in the multi-channel cochlear implant (bionic ear) for people with severe-to-profound hearing loss. The device has been developed industrially by Cochlear Limited. It is the first clinically successful method of restoring brain function, and the first advance in helping deaf children to communicate in the last 200 years. It was the first cochlear implant of any type to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as sage and effective for use on children.
David BurtSecretary/Treasurer
David was a founding Board member of a district school. He served as a volunteer solicitor with the local Citizens Advice Bureau for twenty years. David was also a member of the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital Animal Research Ethics Committee, for the period of fifteen years. In this capacity he participated in the ethical supervision, in accordance with the relevant Code of practice, of the use by the Hospital researchers, of animals for scientific purposes. The ongoing development of the bionic ear was an integral part of this experimental work.
Jerry EllisDirector
Mr Ellis is Chairman of MBD Energy Limited and Landcare Australia, is a director of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and holds various directorships in the fields of finance and mining.
Mr Ellis was elected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1959, and completed the degree of Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours at the University of Oxford.
He began his career with Imperial Chemical Industries in the UK and in Australia and in 1967 joined the then Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited where he rose through the company’s management structure before serving as Chairman from 1997 to 1999.
Mr Ellis was Chancellor of Monash University during the period 1999 to 2007.
Peter KentleyDirector
Peter flew as an airline pilot for 25 years with Ansett in Australia. During this time he served as both a Training Captain and Simulator Manager. For seven years he flew overseas, including service as a Commander on long haul international operations with Air Mauritius and Singapore Airlines. Peter also served as an air safety development specialist with the International Federation of Airline Pilots and the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Since the early 1980s Peter pioneered and developed Christian fellowship groups in the airlines both in Australia and overseas.
Since leaving flying in 2002 Peter has been engaged in developing new spheres of marketplace ministry.
Peter is the CEO of Australian Marketplace Connections incorporating Integrated Leadership Groups which provides facilitated peer mentoring for CEOs, managers and directors of both Public Listed Companies and Small to Medium Enterprise companies.
Brian PymanDirector
Brian Pyman entered the Medical Faculty, University of Melbourne, in 1962 and qualified as Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. He did postgraduate training in hospitals in Melbourne and received a diploma in Laryngology and Otology from the University of Melbourne. In 1974 he qualified as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Otolaryngology.
His contribution to the early cochlear implant research included matters of surgical safety, insertion of the electrodes with minimal trauma to the cochlea and radiological examination. He was a senior surgeon at The Cochlear Implant Clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital which became the first public hospital-based cochlea implant clinic in the world. He was made an Associate Professor at The University of Melbourne. He has played an important role in teaching otolaryngology to surgeons in training. He took a special interest in the impact of the surgery on the whole family.
He has for many years played a key role as a member of the Deafness Foundation Australia (Vic) and now is using computer technologies to assist with virtual surgery.
