Vision Excellence Awards: Peter Ackland

Peter Ackland served as IAPB’s Chief Executive for nearly ten years. Following his training as a chemist, Peter spent several years conducting research in industry and academia. He then made a career change and has been engaged in health and community development work for the past 30 years.

Commencing his career in international development in Africa – where he lived for 12 years – Peter managed different types of development programmes, including teacher training, small business development, environmental and agricultural projects and capacity building of disabled people’s organisations. He then spent five years promoting services for people with dementia in the UK before joining the mission to end avoidable blindness.

Working for Sightsavers in the beginning, Peter has worked towards developing eye health services and the elimination of avoidable blindness and visual impairment for the past 15 years. Consequently, he is a passionate advocate for Universal Health Coverage as well as the realisation of the rights of people with disabilities. Peter Ackland joined IAPB as Director of Programmes in 2008 and became the CEO of IAPB in February 2009.