NEW ZEALAND  

With 37 years of health service experience, Sandra Budd has proven herself a leader in New Zealand and Australian health sectors.
Sandra began her career in health in 1972 as a Registered General and Obstetrics Nurse, and then as a Registered Midwife. She remained on the “front lines” of health for over 20 years before moving into general management in the health sector.

During her career Sandra has managed major health services through significant change that have focused on improving quality and outcomes for clients. This was particularly evident during 12 year period at National Women’s Hospital where she implemented substantial change in service delivery for women and babies that focused on a patient first philosophy. She is proud of introducing a customer service model that saw the development of the highly sought after Cornwall Suite that rivaled similar service models in the private sector.

Prior to her appointment as Chief Executive of the RNZFB in July 2007, Sandra spent 4 years as Executive Director of Clinical Services of the South Australian Children, Youth and Women’s Health Service. She completed her 7 year Australian experience as Executive Director, Workforce Development for the Greater Southern Area Heath Service in New South Wales, responsible for strategic workforce planning for over 5,000 staff.

With this wide experience in human services organisation, service delivery and advocacy Sandra has consistently built consensus amongst disparate stakeholder groups as she led her various organisations forward. 

Sandra's philosophy is putting the client at the centre of everything the Foundation is and does. She has personally driven the bold “RNZFB 2020 – Sustaining our Future” project that has led to the development of the Foundations new strategic direction which clearly defines its focus on essential blindness skills, developing a human rights perspective and a commitment to work with partners to achieve improved population health outcomes for all blind and partially sighted people in New Zealand.

The RNZFB strong commitment to supporting individuals affected by Macular Degeneration to have a “Fair Go” in society has encouraged the Foundations Board to collaborate on the development of the Macular Degeneration New Zealand (MDNZ) Trust and to support Sandra’s participation as a Board Trustee.