After 11 and a half years as chief executive officer of Vision Australia, Ron Hooton will be stepping down as of August 2 for a well-earned break before embarking on his next professional opportunity.
Sam speaks with Ron on this week's episode of Talking Vision to look back over his proudest achievements as CEO but also look ahead to what's next for him over the coming months as he recharges his batteries to jump into the next chapter of his life.
After 11.5 years in his role as chief executive officer of Vision Australia, Ron Hooton will be stepping down from the role as of the 2nd of August. And with that in mind, it's once again my great pleasure to welcome Ron back on to the show. He's always been so very generous with his time over the years, appearing on Talking Vision on quite a few occasions, and today is, of course, no exception. Ron, welcome back to Talking Vision. Thanks so much for your time.
Hi, Sam. It's great to be here.
Now, it's possibly the final time that will be speaking on Talking Vision, but I don't want to say forever. There's always the possibility we'll find one way or another to get you back. But there is some big news for us to share today. You'll be finishing up as CEO of Vision Australia very shortly on.
The 2nd of August. Actually, it's been just an enormous privilege to be part of this organisation. It's an organisation that serves the blindness and low vision community of Australia, and it does so with great distinction very, very well. I'm very proud of what our organization achieves.
And it feels like literally yesterday that we were celebrating your ten year anniversary just a year and a half ago, that would have been now. So there is a few added things, a few added emotions. Now as you move on. It's a bit of a mixed kind of feeling that you'd be having right now, I suppose, tinged with a bit of sadness, but also quite a bit of excitement.
Oh, very much so. It's 11.5 years for me in the organisation, and that's a long time. I've been around senior positions in organisations for 27 years now, and the hours have been very long and I'm tired and I need a break. Um, the mixed emotions are very much that I leave the organization in a brilliant place. We have a great leadership team and we have 850 people who have been my colleagues for some time now who do an absolutely amazing job. I'll miss every single one of my colleagues, but goodness me, I'm really ready for a break.
Oh for sure. We'll get back to that later on and find out just what you might be getting up to over that break. But before I do that, Ron, Justine Heath will be taking over as acting CEO as of the 2nd of August. So could you speak to how you're feeling about that and the confidence that you have in not only Justine, but the leadership team more broadly?
Oh look, Vision Australia is in very, very safe hands. I've known Justine now and worked with her for five years. She is an absolutely marvellous person. She's incredibly talented from a business perspective. She understands our culture, she understands blindness and low vision. I couldn't be more confident of anybody stepping in to that role. In terms of the leadership team, you have a marvelous group of people who, in their areas of specialization, do an absolutely fantastic job. My part for so many years has been to support them, to help them succeed, but they've been doing the job. People can feel very confident about the crew that's running Vision Australia today.
Now, Ron.
We've.
Covered off a little bit on the future of Vision Australia right there with Justine and the leadership team going forward. But for the time being, I'd love to go through a bit of a highlight package of the last 11.5 years. There's so many achievements. I'm sure we could list off far too many to fit in a 15 minute or so conversation. But you know, things like the Life Ready Program, know your vision, all those sort of things, all the initiatives that you've been so heavily involved with, what's been the feelings around that and being able to be involved with those things that have helped so many people around Australia in the blind and low vision community.
It's funny, Sam, that when you are moving day to day, you don't recognize what's been achieved. But over more than a decade now, the organization has grown remarkably. I think probably the first thing that I would mention is our transition to the NDIS, and I started in January 2013, and in June 2013 the government launched the NDIS and it was launched in Newcastle and in Geelong. And we adopted a process of demonstration sites. We had no idea what the NDIS was going to look like, nor did the NDIS. As it happened. So we just said to the people in those two locations, do whatever it takes, there are no rules. And that worked brilliantly for us. A couple of years later we put in a great information system to support our organisation. We did some rebranding. We used to be purple and green and now we're yellow and blue. That's right. Yeah. They're much more fashionable colors.
Certainly.
There was of course, the Covid times as well, which were very, very difficult for everyone. But our organization thrived through that. We kept going and did 95% of our service hours that we were previously doing before Covid with an enormous amount of telehealth. And then you mentioned Life Ready, and you mentioned know your vision. Both are marvelous projects. The Life Ready program really does it for kids. Kids from the age zero, from from their their birth right through to their early 20s focused on getting them into jobs. I have such a lot of confidence in the people that are coming through those programs, that they're going to get out there and make a big impact on life. The last one you mentioned, no, your vision is very much about our older Australians, and we expect that over the next decade, there's going to be about a 30% increase in the number of people who need our services and the Know Your Vision program, and an absolutely brilliant program, checking in chat that helps people in that age group with their wellbeing are just going to be so necessary for that growing population. Three quarters of our clients now are over the age of 65, and that's going to be a cohort that is going to be so much in need over the next 10 to 20 years. Mhm.
And Ron, I also wanted to go into the involvement that Vision Australia has had under your leadership with strengthening services for First Nations communities who are at higher risk of blindness or low vision in the Red centre, the Northern Territory more generally, but also over in Broome, up in the Kimberley and those sort of regions. And, you know, tell us a bit about those services that we're able to provide there.
Oh, that's been an enormous passion project for me. Indigenous people have real challenges with vision loss and the program that we built, first of all, in Alice Springs, where we've partnered with the Congress organization up there to bring services to the local communities. And then in Broome with the Lions Outback Vision Centre have delivered. They've delivered brilliantly. We've got people on the ground there working with credible organisations trusted by the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It's just working very, very well Over the last year, we've had a 17% increase in the number of Aboriginal people who gained services from Virgin Australia. So I think the the record speaks for itself.
We'll go to a little bit of a lighter topic, Ron. Now, um, as you mentioned earlier in the interview there, you're really keen to rest and recharge your batteries, so to speak. So no doubt over the past 11.5 years, there's been thousands and thousands of early mornings, late nights, wall to wall meetings, commitments and everything like that. Being able to just switch off, take a break. What are you looking forward to the most getting up to and spending your free time? What do you love to do there?
Oh look I'm going to try and play some more golf. Yes. Uh, one of the career options that I have going forward is not going to be PGA Tour or Seniors Tour, but I'd love to get out there in the outdoors. I want to do some more hiking. I was looking enviously at a mornington Peninsula hike, but I've also got in mind the 80 kilometre coastal trek in Sydney some time. Bit of gardening. Our garden is somewhat rundown, maybe a little bit of woodworking, but also I want to have the time to learn. There are a whole lot of things that I want to get in there and learn about. Maybe a bit of computer coding, some new theories coming through on AI. So I'm going to be really busy. I'm going to go and do another job sometime soon. I don't know when that is, and I don't know what that is, but the options are so many that I have to spend time also working out how to choose.
Yeah, that's the exciting part. I know you are also a bit of a sports tragic one. Um, and it's perfect timing as the Olympics are just upon us now. So being able to spend a few late nights watching the Olympics and that sort of thing, but also the cricket's not far away as things warm up. But we've also got the northern hemisphere summer, so, you know, watching a bit of that.
Oh, that will be wonderful. I am a cricket tragic. And in the Olympics there are a couple of things that I'm really, really excited about. Water polo is a sport again, and our boys were represented of water polo players and back in New Zealand. So they they'll be passionately watching that, as will we. But I'm really looking forward to seeing how Jess Gallagher does. Jess is a good friend of mine and a part of the blindness and low vision community of of Australia. And she's, I think, at her third or fourth Olympics, including Summer and Winter and Sam, I'm sure you'll get her back on the program sometime soon.
I'd love to. Yeah, she's a great contributor to not only the Olympic scene, but also all around in the blind and low vision community in a variety of roles that she's held and continues to hold and does some amazing work. So we do love to keep tabs on how she's going. She's an absolute seasoned pro now. I think, um, she's been well, you've said 3 or 4 Olympics. That might be even more than that. Yeah, she's been a super experienced Olympian, so we love to have her on the program. So Ron, finally, what sort of message would you like to leave our listeners with as we wrap up today?
I think probably the most profound learning that I've had is that people with disabilities have their disabilities created by the ignorance and intolerance of the world around them, not by themselves. And I think the more we can do to bring forward the really great capabilities of people who are in the blindness and low vision community, to have them being first choice for jobs and living in an environment that really suits and is is built for them. It's just a really important challenge for all Australians. The other little message that I'd like to leave is that the blindness and low vision community has an absolute asset in Vision Australia. I have 850 colleagues who I have the greatest fondness for, but also the greatest respect for their skill as therapists or in all the other roles, including your own. As a radio personality, we have a great organization here that will serve blindness and low vision community of Australia for just many years to come.
Thank you so much for being here today, Ron. It's been a pleasure to have you on the program over the past few years. So all the very best in your future, and I'm sure we will cross paths here or there somewhere. So I'm very excited to see where that might be.
Sam, thank you very much. Signing off as CEO.
Ron.
Horton there catching up with me on Talking Vision this week as he wraps up as Vision Australia CEO, effective as of the 2nd of August.