Our Board

Dr Graham Forward – Founding Director & CEO

Graham is a Western Australian Orthopaedic Surgeon with primary medical degrees from The University of Western Australia, and fellowship of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons and Australian Orthopaedic Association.

Following the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, Graham assembled an emergency and traumatology team to provide assistance in Bosaso, Somalia, at the request of local doctors and surgeons. From that visit in February 2005, Australian Doctors for Africa was incorporated as an organisation to help sustainable development of surgical, medical and health services in Africa.

Graham continues as a busy Orthopaedic Surgeon in Perth and includes outreach to the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands.

Recognition has been received by the Order of Australia (AM), the John Curtin Medal, the G M Bedbrook Oration of the AOA, Australia Day Citizen of the Year, nomination for the Australian of the Year (WA) and the Ethiopian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology Award.

John Bond – Chair

John was one of the founders of Primewest, a national property investment business which was sold to Centuria Limited in 2021.  His background spans law, investment banking as well as property investment and development.  He holds board and equity positions in a range of companies in diverse sectors including Lexus of Perth, Cosgrove Group, Energy-Tec and Core Vision.

He holds degrees in Law and Commerce from The University of Western Australia. He was the founding Chairman of The Fathering Project, a not-for-profit organisation focusing on the importance of a father figure in children’s lives. He was previously a board member of the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation and the Martu Charitable Trust.

John has been a supporter of, and passionate about ADFA since visiting Ethiopia with Graham Forward and witnessing first hand the tremendous impact it has on the lives of local people and has been Chair of the Board since February 2016..

Peter Abery

Peter is a professional director and a business, governance and strategy consultant. He provides advice to boards on a variety of matters including strategy, board performance evaluations, board and committee structures, board and CEO relationships, and effective board governance practices and processes.

He has been an education facilitator for the Australian Institute of Company Directors for the past 14 years on their various public and in-boardroom courses.  His consulting services have covered business turnaround strategies and implementation, mergers and acquisitions, organisational structure, business efficiency and effectiveness, and coaching of senior executives.

He has held various chief executive roles in Australia, the UK and South Africa. He has worked with private equity, start-up businesses, privately owned businesses, listed companies and in mergers and acquisitions. He has held a number of non-executive company director and chair roles of publicly listed, unlisted, private and NFP companies.

Peter Abery holds a M Sc Electrical Engineering, an MBA and has completed the International Senior Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Directors.

Dr Nandini Doreswamy

Nandini has significant experience in leadership, management, health, and technology. She holds an MBBS, a Master’s in General Surgery, an MBA, and accreditations in technology and project management. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  Her areas of interest include governance, risk, medicine, technology, sustainability, and human relevance in an AI-driven future.

Nandini has served on the Board of Directors of the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) and was a Director at Deloitte.  Previously, she was a Director in the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care. She was nominated by the federal government as a Distinguished Talent and granted Australian citizenship on this basis.  Nandini is committed to all aspects of equality, including racial and cultural equality and respect, equality for indigenous peoples, and gender/non-gender equality.

David McCoy

David McCoy’s African adventure began as an exchange student in the late 1980s in South Africa.
David brings his 30-year global business experience to the ADFA Board. He is the Executive Chairman of TZMI, a globally recognised consulting firm that supports the world’s opaque minerals and metals industries, particularly in the titanium value chain.

David has worked for clients in over 70 countries, including many African nations.  He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (Chemical Engineering) and has a Master of Engineering Management (International Finance major) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

A/Prof Rochelle Spencer

Rochelle has a long relationship with Africa having first worked on the East Africa Desk of British Red Cross in the 1990s. As an applied anthropologist, she is interested in development encounters and how development discourses and practices shape the everyday lives of people facing disadvantage — both positively and negatively.

Rochelle is Associate Professor of Development Studies. Through her research and teaching, she seeks to facilitate participatory approaches that enhance cross-cultural perspectives within development processes. She has researched with many NGOs including Australian Red Cross, Oxfam Australia, Global Exchange in Cuba, CARE Vietnam, Catholic Relief Services Southern Africa, and Nuwul Indigenous social enterprise in northeast Arnhem Land. Her strengths lie in applying participatory approaches to the design, implementation and evaluation of development projects that help to inform technical expertise, programming, and policy. In this way, her research has applied real-world outcomes by ensuring the inclusion of local perspectives in development.

She is co-founder and principal fellow of the Indo-Pacific Research Centre and the Development Studies Association of Australia (DSAA), as well as co-director of Research for Development Impact Network, and Deputy Editor of Development in Practice.