About

Carol Langsford was employed in the family jewellery business and later became a Professional Tennis Coach, coaching winning Tildesley Shield teams at Ravenswood School for Girls and Roseville College.

She served on Tennis Australia’s Player Development Board and as a National Selector. She was a Board member of Tennis New South Wales for twelve years and was a member of the Participation (Chair), Player Development, Tournament & Sanctioning, Strategic Planning, Women’s Selection, Executive, Coaches Examination, Social, Women’s Advisory Committee, Membership, Competition & Events, Referee Appointment, Player Development & Community Tennis and Marketing & Sponsorship Committees. She was Tennis NSW delegate to the NSW Olympic Council and was a member of the Ministerial Women in Sport Advisory Council in NSW. She brings many skills to the Board including Corporate Governance, event management, marketing and communication.

She holds a Diploma of Freelance Journalism with the Australian College of Journalism and is Chair of the Trish Foundation.

The Foundation is privileged and grateful for the honorary professional contribution of our eminent Scientific Research Committee who give immense amounts of their valuable time and their significant expertise pro bono to the Trish MS Research Foundation.

Wendy has been employed in the jewellery trade since 1965 involved in all aspects of the business including staff education and management, only taking time out to have 3 daughters and to accompany David when he was overseas in 1972 and 1980.

She still works part time for a Gold Dealer and brings a variety of skills to the Board.

She has been a Board member since inception.

Niall King owned and managed a plumbing company involved in construction, design, commercial and industrial installation of Plumbing, Drainage, Gasfitting and Fire Services from 1973 until 2002 when he retired to take on the role of full time carer for his wife Carole who had profound disability due to advanced Multiple Sclerosis. Sadly, Carole passed away on 3rd June 2018 following her brave, dignified battle with MS.

Niall has until recently been a member of the Rotary Club of Strathfield, holding several board positions over 25 years of service and has also worked as a volunteer at MS Society events and at the Studdy Centre, Lidcombe for over 20 years.

Niall has been a supporter of the Trish Foundation since 2002 and organised Golf Day fundraisers through the Strathfield Rotary Club from 2002 to 2010, raising approximately $250,000. A further two events were held in 2011 and 2012 adding an additional $143,000. Niall conducted two additional Golf Days in 2019 and 2020, raising additional valuable funds for the Foundation’s research.

Niall has been honoured with Rotary Awards: Paul Harris Fellow 2003, Paul Harris Fellow Sapphire Pin 2007, Service above Self 2009

Niall has also been honoured with other Awards: OAM 2011, Strathfield Citizen of the Year 2011, Sydney Inner West Volunteer of the Year 2011, NSW Carers Award 2013.

Having known Trish since they were both teenagers, and having witnessed firsthand the suffering Trish so bravely endured, John has been a supporter of the foundation since inception. When the foundation’s goal to find a cure or preventative strategy for MS is realised, John knows too well how life altering this will be for all concerned. Accordingly, John was honoured to be invited to join the Trish MS Board in 2017.

John’s early career was with Australian Airlines, and subsequently with QANTAS when the two airlines merged. This career path saw John progress through various roles including retail sales, telephone sales, system software testing, system software development, and business process analysis and improvement. John was selected to participate in QANTAS’ Lean Six Sigma training programme, culminating in GE Aircraft Engines’ Customer Six Sigma Black Belt Training in 2006. John was a divisional Annual Excel Award Winner for 2007 – nominated for ongoing demonstration of exceptional leadership.

In 2011 John was recruited into UGL Limited, when a previous manager from his QANTAS days invited him to apply for a position, once again reporting to her, within the Bids and Tenders Team for the Freight Rail line of business. This position largely involved designing and developing systems and processes to produce quality bid and tender submissions. After nearly seven years of service at UGL, John was recruited by Downer to join their Major Projects team, and is presently tasked with improving their bidding systems, as a Bid Systems Engineer.

Jeremy’s working career focused on marketing with international, interstate and local organisations involved in advertising, the performing arts, the energy sector and telecommunications.

He began his involvement in not-for-profit activities in 1985 as a board member of Sydney Dance Co. In 1989, Jeremy and his wife Marilyn, launched Red Nose Day in NSW and followed up by directing a successful prevention campaign for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He also assisted in launching Jeans for Genes Day and has served on the Boards of the Starlight Foundation and Telstra ChildFlight.

From 2004, Jeremy served as the founding Chief  Executive of MS Research Australia (MSRA), facilitating over A$25mill as part of an international research effort, aiming to solve multiple sclerosis.

Having retired from MSRA in 2013, Jeremy has taken on several project management roles, in medical research and Indigenous affairs. He is also on the Board of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and since 2016 has been Chairman of Synergy & Taikoz Ltd.

Josh joined the Trish MS Research Foundation Board in 2018, following seven years of dedicated service on the Trish MS Ball Committee.

Josh has worked in secondary education since 1999, across both Independent and Catholic schools in New South Wales. Throughout his career, he has held a range of leadership positions, contributing to school executive teams and advisory groups. His areas of expertise include the strategic integration of technology in education and the development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs in schools.

Josh’s passion for education and community service continues to drive his contributions to the Trish MS Research Foundation, supporting its mission to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

Sharon initially qualified as a physiotherapist and then went on to study law. She was admitted to practice law in 2005 and since then has worked in the area of Health Law.

She is currently working as a Legal Team Manager, providing medico legal advice to medical practitioners and medical practices. She has developed extensive experience acting on behalf of medical practitioners in civil disputes, disciplinary matters, complex regulatory investigations, coronial inquiries and other health law matters.

Sharon has been the Trish MS Research Foundation’s Company Secretary since its inception in 1999 and is passionate in finding a cure for MS.

Professor John Pollard AO MB BS BSc(Med) PhD FRACP FRCP(Lond) (Chair) was Bushell Professor of Neurology, University of Sydney until 2008 and remains a member of the Neuroinflammation Group at the Brain and Mind Centre University of Sydney. He was a member of the steering committee of the World Federation of Neurology Neuromuscular Group and past Board member of the International Peripheral Nerve Society.  Professor Pollard is the Chairman of the Foundation’s Scientific Research Committee.

Michael Barnett MBBS FRACP PhD  is the McLeod Professor of Neurology at the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC), University of Sydney; consultant neurologist and Director of the MS Service at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) Sydney; and Director of the MS Clinical Trials Unit at the BMC. He trained in neurology at RPAH and received further subspecialty training in Neuroinflammation and Neuro-ophthalmology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Moorfields Eye Hospital, in London. He subsequently completed a PhD in MS pathophysiology at the University of Sydney; and has particular research interests in MS neuropathology and neuroimaging. He co-founded two successful med-tech companies, including the Sydney Neuroimaging Analysis Centre (SNAC), the first regulatory-compliant neuroimaging analysis / central MRI reading for MS clinical trials in the Southern hemisphere. He is a leader in the Brain and Mind Centre’s Computational Neuroscience Team, which is spearheading the development and application of AI-derived algorithms and imaging biomarkers to further understanding of the mechanisms of neurological disease, improve diagnostic specificity and enhance treatment paradigms. He is also co-Director of the MS Australia Brain Bank and former Chairman of the PACTRIMS Scientific Program Committee.

Dr Jennifer Massey MBBS (Hons) FRACP PhD is a Neurologist based at St Vincent’s, Sydney. She completed her undergraduate training at UWA graduating with honours and worked in Western Australia prior to beginning Neurology Advanced Training in NSW. She completed neurology training in 2017 is currently working as a VMO at St Vincent’s Hospital. Her PhD looks at the clinical, radiological and immunological outcomes of patients undergoing AHSCT for MS. She continues to be heavily involved in this translational research project and is the recent recipient of an MSRA postdoctorate fellowship.

Prof Stewart is a clinician scientist, trained both as a Physician and Pathologist. He was the Director of the Department of Clinical Immunology from 1980 to 2020 at Westmead Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of the University of Sydney where he holds the title of Clinical Professor of Medicine. In 2020 he also stepped down as Director of the Centre for Immunology & Allergy Research in the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) with an international reputation in research in the field of human immunogenetics, particularly in the discovery of genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.

Having retired from clinical work in 2020, he continues, in 2021, to contribute to research in the WIMR and to teaching at the University of Sydney.

Professor Stewart’s research interest in the autoimmune nature of multiple sclerosis spans more than 40 years with a principal focus on genetic factors and the insights they provide into the immunopathogenesis of the disease. He initiated the Australian & New Zealand MS Genetics Consortium (ANZgene) and is a founding member of the 6 person Governance Group for the International MS Genetics Consortium (IMSGC), through which a sizeable proportion of the MS genes have now been discovered (Nature 2011, Nature Genetics 2013, Cell 2018, Science 2019).

Prof Stewart received almost continuous research funding from the Australian government (NH&MRC, Australian Research Council) for 40 years.  He has published more than 250 papers in peer reviewed journals with more than 17,000 citations and an h-index of 58. He has supervised more than 30 graduate students, mostly for PhD. His research group is one of the four founding groups (in 1996) of the Westmead Millennium Institute, now the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Prof Stewart has occupied senior positions in science governance in Australia including Chair of the Fellowships’ Committee and membership of the Research Council of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) and Chair of the Commonwealth AIDS Research Grants Council. He was a founding board member of Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia in 2004, a position he held to 2020.

In 2005 he became a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the development of health policy and medical education about HIV and AIDS, to medicine in the field of Immunology, and to research on the genetics of multiple sclerosis. In 2014 he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society of NSW.

Professor Helmut Butzkueven (MBBS 1992, PhD 2002), is an academic neurologist specializing in management of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and real-world MS outcomes research. He is the van Cleef Roet professor of Neuroscience Research at the Central Clinical School, Monash University and Director of Neurology at Alfred Health, Melbourne. Helmut Butzkueven is the Managing Director of the MSBase Foundation (www.msbase.org), a global online MS cohort study which commenced in 2004, with more than 74,000 patients enrolled from 130 centres to date. His overarching research theme and clinical interest is the use of registry data, clinical MRI data, cognitive testing, genomics and patient self-monitoring devices and applications to evaluate treatment strategies and trial methodology to optimize benefit, safety and discovery of MS therapies.

Associate Professor Stephen Reddel MB BS PhD FRACP
Stephen Reddel is a staff specialist neurologist at Concord Repatriation & General Hospital Sydney, and consultant neurologist at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. He trained in neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and has a PhD in the immunology of the Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome. He heads the neuroimmunology clinic at Concord Hospital, which specialises in the safe treatment of neurological conditions requiring immunotherapy, including multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and a host of rarer diseases. Dr Reddel’s academic appointment is Associate Professor, Sydney University where he has been involved in the neurology course development, ensuring standards of institutional sartorial elegance, online lectures and teaching of medical students, post graduate clinical training and post graduate research student supervision.