John Robert Arthur Dowd AO KC (born 12 November 1940), is a former leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in New South Wales.
[3] Retiring from Parliament in 1991, Dowd was succeeded as Member for Lane Cove by future Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski.
He attempted a move to the federal arena when he sought preselection for the 1994 Warringah by-election following the retirement of Michael Mackellar but lost out to future Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
During his time as international chairman, Dowd was involved in missions including to Hong Kong in 1991, East Timor in 2000 and Nepal in 2003.
[6] In 2005, he was appointed Protection Ambassador for ActionAid Australia (previously called AUSTCARE), and became a Director of the organisation in 2008 and President in 2009.