The DFF Board of Directors

George Lloyd

George Lloyd

Chairman

George has considerable technical, commercial and financial experience as a senior executive and director of companies in the global resources and corporate finance sectors. He is presently Chairman of Ausenco Pty Ltd, a global engineering services provider with more than 2,500 employees, and a director of a number of other resource sector companies.

Chris Saxon

Chris Saxon

Legal

Chris is now a senior adviser to Baker McKenzie Australia, having been a partner and Chair (2012-17) to the law firm. His experience includes large-scale mergers and acquisitions, serving as a non-executive director of a number of companies and is Chair of listed public company Home Consortium Limited.

Keith Cox

Keith Cox

Medical

Keith Cox OAM is a recently retired Cancer Nurse Practitioner who has 50 years of experience in health and nursing, treating patients at both Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, the specialist cancer treatment centre in Sydney which he helped establish a decade ago.

 

Scott Hawker

Scott Hawker

Treasurer

After more than 40 years’ in financial services, his most recent role was as National Manager for not for profit endowments at Perpetual.
Scott has a Masters in Applied Finance, is an Australian Institute of Company Directors graduate and a member of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. 

 

Rick Ferguson

Rick Ferguson

CEO

Rick Ferguson owned and ran both retail and commercial Patisseries and bakeries for more than 20 years before moving into the food service market where he worked in business development and sales representing major wholesale import and manufacturing supply companies. Before establishing “By The Pallet” A wholesale
Food service packaging company that links regional distributors to local manufactures for the benefit of both. 

 

Daniel Ferguson

Daniel Ferguson

Board Member

Daniel has almost 20 years’ experience as a boutique jeweller and runs his own business, DDF Jewellers.

Currently residing in Sydney, Daniel is a sufferer of Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type R1. His interests include sports, cars, nature and anything creative.

Michelle Lorentzos

Michelle Lorentzos

Medical

Dr Michelle Lorentzos is a paediatric neurologist and the Clinical Trials Medical Lead at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She manages patients with neuromuscular disease in a multidisciplinary clinic and oversees several clinical trials for treatments in muscular dystrophy.

 

Ben Lentini

Ben Lentini

Information Technology

Ben has almost 20 years’ experience in the public sector, specialising in the electronics field, specifically marine systems. More recently he has focussed on information technology and brings both of those skills to the Daniel Ferguson Foundation.

 

Scientific and Medical Advisory Board

Michelle Lorentzos

Michelle Lorentzos

Scientific and Medical Advisory Board Chair

Dr Michelle Lorentzos is a paediatric neurologist with a particular interest in muscular dystrophy. She works in the neurogenetics department at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, caring for patients with neuromuscular disease and overseeing several clinical trials for treatments in muscular dystrophy. 

Michelle is the Clinical Trials Medical Lead at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, providing leadership and advocacy for the development and implementation of clinical trials across all areas of medicine at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network.  

Michelle completed her specialist training in paediatric neurology at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead after completing her medical degree at The University of Sydney in 2007.  She is passionate about acknowledging the broad impacts of disease and disability in children and her PhD contributed to an improved understanding of psychological conditions experienced by children and young people with neurological disorders.  

Prior to undertaking her medical studies, Michelle obtained a Communications degree at The University of Technology, Sydney, and she has maintained a strong interest in the role of communication in health equity and outcomes.  

Jo Offord

Jo Offord

Board Member

Dr Jo Offord holds a Neuroscience degree, with first class honours, from University of New South Wales, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Sydney University. She completed her post-graduate Neurology training at St George and Prince of Wales Hospitals. She has done Neuroscience research in New York and London, and completed a Fellowship in Neurophysiology at Prince of Wales Hospital. Dr Offord is a practicing Neurologist at Prince of Wales Hospital, the Aboriginal Community Health Service in La Perouse, and in private practice.  Her interests are general neurology, peripheral nerve and neuromuscular disorders, and headache. She runs the Neuromuscular Transition clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital and is one of three Neuromuscular specialists who run the Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic clinic. Dr Offord is a member of the district Transition Care (Paediatric to Adult services) Steering Committee for SESLHD and SCHN. Outside of Neurology, she has a career-long interest in patient safety and is a Clinical Expert on the CEC Clinical Expert Panel, having presented projects to the CEC Research Advisory Committee (2019) and the CEC Patient Safety Managers Forum (2022), and won a scholarship in Patient Safety for her work in Critical Thinking and Cognitive Bias.

Supporting The Board

Therese Ferguson

Therese Ferguson

Advisor and Mother of Daniel

Therese is a Nurse who has 40 years’ experience in health care including general nursing, mental health care, aged care, and rehabilitation, With a keen interest in neurological disorders, Therese has recently been providing support for those needing assistance to function within their home or community. She is also the proud mother of Daniel Ferguson.

Simone Griffin

Simone Griffin

Advisor and Sister of Daniel

Simone has a Bachelor of Health Sciences with a Masters in Rehabilitation Counselling from the University of Sydney and worked in health management, in both the private and not-for-profit sectors, before moving to the public sector where she now works for NSW Health, co-ordinating health advice for Parliament and Cabinet. 

Tish Lancaster

Tish Lancaster

Registered Nurse

Tish Lancaster AM is a registered nurse with 45 years’ experience in both clinical and management positions and has extensive governance experience at multiple levels. Tish has published in the peer-reviewed literature, authored book chapters, edited a textbook and was a journal editor for 11 years. 

Gae Glemson

Gae Glemson

Secretary

CPA qualified finance professional with over 20 years experience specialising in the area of transactional banking payments primarily in the telecommunications industry. Multi skilled in; delivery of payment products, project implementations across both digital and billing platforms, contract negotiation, vendor management, systems integration, card compliance, financial controls and staff management.

Mark Nicolls

Mark Nicolls

Fundraising

Mark has been in the foodservice sector for over 30 years servicing accounts such as Qantas, I&J Foods, Hyatt Hotels and the Sydney Opera House.

More recently establishing a large scale events catering business and in his spare time consulting to new and up and coming food operators. He will bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to DFF in his fundraising capacity.

Tessa Saxon

Tessa Saxon

Marketing & Social Media Strategist

Tessa is an Account Manager in Edelman London’s Brand team with a distinction Bachelor of Media and Communications degree majoring in Journalism, from the University of New South Wales.

Specialising in consumer PR with experience in media relations, campaign management and crisis communication she works across a range of global clients. Tessa’s experience in the consumer PR space and with event management aids DFF in expanding their community and building ongoing ambassador partnerships.

Tegan Gould

Tegan Gould

Marketing & Social Media Strategist

Tegan has studied Politics and International relations Industry experience at the University of Sheffield. She has managed a variety of fundraising events for multiple nationwide charities.

Further, her digital marketing internships and freelance social media marketing for yoga and wellness companies bring a variety of skills for social media strategy and content creation at DFF.

Featured Foundation Supporters and Partners

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