DANIEL AJAK, Chair

Daniel became chair of Barefoot to Boots in January 2026. He fled the Sudanese civil war with his parents in 1991 and lived in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, for 13 years. He resettled in Adelaide in 2004 on a humanitarian visa with his older sister, as his guardian, leaving both parents behind. 

Daniel won a scholarship to the prestigious Prince Alfred College and graduated from Flinders University with a Bachelor of Law and Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) in 2015.

He was admitted to the Supreme Court of South Australia and the High Court of Australia. In 2017, after seeing media coverage about African youth crime in Victoria, Daniel went to a Melbourne criminal law specialist firm, practising in summary and indictable crime.

Before co-founding Ajak & Associates Lawyers, Daniel worked at Victoria Legal Aid in the Summary Crime and Youth Crime team where he regularly appeared in the Magistrates’ Court, Children’s Court and the Bail & Remand Court.

Daniel has featured in Australian media, sharing his journey from a refugee camp to settling in Australia and becoming an Australian legal practitioner.

AWER BUL, Director and Founder

Awer G. Bul was born in 1983 in South Sudan. He grew up in the midst of the Sudanese civil war. When he was seven years old he fled to the border of Uganda and South Sudan with his parents, where he was faced with similar insecurity. In 1994 he was separated from his parents and travelled to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya where he lived for six years, eating just one meal a day. 

In December 2000 at age of 17, he was given the opportunity to go to America as one of the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’. There he attended J.R. Tucker High School and worked at the local grocery store. He graduated in 2004 with Honours, which gave him entry to one of the top American Arts schools.

He joined Virginia Commonwealth University as a full-time Arts student majoring in Kinetic Imaging, with a minor in Fine Arts. While attending university, he created the Awer Bul Art Program, a project which provides artists in Kakuma Refugee Camp with art supplies, and conducts workshops. In 2012, he travelled back to South Sudan with the help of an American friends to build a water well in Wangulei, South Sudan. The well is currently in use by three villages.

Awer moved to Australia in 2012 to join his family. He is now the father of three children and is currently working as Draftsperson for Supaloc International, a steel structure building system. 

IAN SMITH AM, Director and Inaugural Chair

Ian Smith is the founding partner of corporate and political advisory firm Bespoke Approach. He is also a Senior Adviser to Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based strategy consultancy and part of Dentons Global Advisors. 

Ian is engaged in refugee advocacy and is a director of Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia. 

Ian is the Deputy Chair of King’s Trust Australia, founded by His Majesty King Charles III. He is a member of the Council for the University of South Australia. 

He was a Director of Developing East Arnhem Limited, a not-for-profit company driving the remote region’s economic development. He became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2018.

He lives between France and the United States.

PETER BATLEY, Director

Peter is a Resilience Manager with Etihad Rail. He has successfully led multi-disciplinary teams, managed multi-million-dollar operational portfolios, and delivered complex programs in challenging environments. He has overseen large-scale programs involving governance, infrastructure, community engagement, and regulatory compliance. 

He was previously a senior police office in South Australia, working in diverse conditions. He worked in Adelaide and in the regions, including serving as the police commander in the remote APY Lands.

He developed and secured long-term government funding for community-led models of service delivery in remote areas and worked closely with traditional owners where English was not the primary language. 

He brings to Barefoot to Boots and understanding of the importance of respectful engagement, cultural competence, and delivering services that empower rather than impose.

Peter currently resides in the Middle East.

AWER MABIL, Patron and Co-Founder

Awer Bul Mabil is a professional footballer who plays with Spain’s Segunda División club CD Castellón. He has also made 35 appearances for the Socceroos, the Australian national team.

Mabil was born to South Sudanese parents in Kakuma, located in northwestern Kenya. He lived with his family in the Kakuma Refugee Camp until the age of 10 when he moved to Australia with his mother and settled in Adelaide. 

As a five-year-old he began playing football in Kakuma. "We would just go outside and start kicking around. It was not structured and there was little else to do," he says, playing in bare feet and using a rolled-up sock or plastic bags as a football.

Mabil attended St Columba College in Adelaide, graduating in 2013. He played youth soccer at the South Australian National Training Centre and made his senior debut for South Australian NPL club Campbelltown City, before making his debut in the A-League for Adelaide United in 2013.