General Optical Council

Alan Tomlinson is currently professor and head of vision sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University. He is a former lecturer at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and professor at Indiana University and the Southern California College of Optometry. He has also previously worked as a clinical research director for a major US manufacturer.

Alan has published over 100 papers in refereed journals and has lectured extensively throughout the US, Europe, South America and Australia. In 1976, he was awarded the Research Medal of the British Optical Association and the Shapero Award of the American Academy of Optometry in 1999. He is author of the textbook, Complications of Contact Lens wear.

David graduated from City University in 1979 and qualified as an optometrist in 1980. He has since worked in all spheres of optometric practice and is currently Professional Services Director for Boots Opticians. A former president of the College of Optometrists, David is a College examiner and assessor for the pre-registration year.

He is married to Yvonne, also an optometrist, and they have two children aged 20 and 18. David's hobbies include golf, tennis and triathlons.

An education advisor to the General Optical Council (GOC), David Pyle began his career teaching in primary schools, before entering teacher education. He headed the Leeds Polytechnic School of Education in 1986 before becoming pro vice chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University in 1989.

Since taking early retirement in 1997, David has worked part time as chief inspector for an open college network in the northwest, as well as heading a number of consultancy projects for the Universities and Colleges Staff Development Agency. He has also undertaken work as an adviser to the Teacher Training Agency, and currently chairs a schools partnership committee for Leeds Metropolitan University.

David is a keen gardener and DIY enthusiast, and is a pianist for a local choir. He enjoys spending time at his apartment in southern Spain and in his part-owned house in Normandy.

Appointed to the General Optical Council (GOC) in 2004 as a Privy Council nominee, Geoff Harris is currently chairman of the South Central Strategic Health Authority.Geoff has served as a non executive director and chairman of Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust. He is a former member of the Public Health Laboratory Service and, until April 2003, was a non executive director of Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust, covering both the general hospital and the National Spinal Injuries Centre. His specialist interests are corporate and clinical governance.

Married with four children, Geoff lives in Buckinghamshire and is a magistrate on the central Buckinghamshire bench.

Ian Hamer OBE was appointed as lay member for Wales in 2007. Formerly the chair of the Air Transport Users Council, Ian brings experience of representing the interests of consumers in a regulated environment. He is managing director of an international group of companies in the plastics industry and sits as a magistrate in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Jennifer works in independent practice and at the Hospital Eye Service as a dispensing optician and low vision practitioner. She is vice president (president elect) of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) and low vision adviser to the ABDO board. Jennifer is an examiner for the ABDO low vision honours diploma, chairman of the ABDO low vision committee and chairman of the ABDO benevolent fund. She is also a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. Jennifer writes and lectures regularly on low vision. In 1999 she was awarded the Hamblin Memorial Prize for services to dispensing optics, and in 2005 was the first ever recipient of the title, Outstanding Dispensing Optician of the Year. Jennifer is married to an optometrist and practises in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

Stuart Heatherington is currently a magistrate for the Sussex (northern division) magistrate’s courts service, where he sits in both the youth and adult courts. Since 2003 he has also served as an appointed member of the General Medical Council.

Stuart began his career designing and supporting technical software for road and railway design. He later established and ran his own international software company. In recent years Stuart has been fully committed to the health service, serving for two years as chairman of a mental health trust, followed by a further six years as chairman of the Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust. He has also undertaken voluntary work for both the British Red Cross and Samaritans of Tyneside.

In his spare time, Stuart pursues an interest in art history and aims to keep fit by going for the odd short run.