BGRF Directors

Chris Wilson

Chief Executive Officer, Madigan Capital

Chris has over 25 years of experience in leadership roles across legal, investment, people and risk governance. Chris joined Madigan Capital, a leading Australian institutional investment manager specialising in commercial real estate debt in February 2023 after 14 years in various leadership roles with the Future Fund (Australia’s sovereign wealth fund) and before that in real estate funds management and private legal practice in Australia and the United Kingdom. Chris holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Commerce and is the current chair of the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation.

Peter Watson

Founding trustee of the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation (BGRF).

‘I am a trustee of the Perpetual Charitable Will Trust in the Estate of the late Glen W A Griffiths of North Road Brighton who passed away in 1991. Glen died in Bethlehem Hospital where his wife had worked on the auxiliary for 45 years. The Trust was involved in the formation of the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation and has been its principal donor ever since and intends to continue to be a significant supporter. The Foundation has achieved a lot but could do so much more if we could find more financial support from individuals, corporations and bequests.’

Peter Watson is a lawyer in his 53rd year of legal practice. He was one of two executors of the Will of the late Glen W A Griffiths and is a trustee of the Perpetual Charitable Trust established under that Will. That Trust has been the principal funding source for the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation of which Peter was a founding trustee. He is now a director of BGRF Company Limited, The Corporate Trustee of the Foundation.

Professor Dominic Thyagarajan

Movement Disorder Neurologist

Professor Dominic Thyagarajan graduated from the University of Melbourne and is currently adjunct Professor (Neuroscience) at Monash University in the Central Clinical School. He is a Consultant Neurologist at the Alfred Hospital (where he is Head of the Deep Brain Stimulation program) and Monash Medical Centre. He was Director of Neurology at Monash Medical Centre from 2010-2016, and Director of Neurology at Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide from 2001-2009.

He obtained his undergraduate and postgraduate research degrees at the University of Melbourne. His Physician’s training and Neurology specialization were at St Vincent’s and Alfred hospitals, Melbourne. Completing his training in Neurology in 1993, he pursued an academic career combining: a post-doctoral laboratory-based Fellowship at Columbia University, New York, on a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship; interspersed Clinical Fellowships at the Mayo Clinic (in Clinical Neurology) and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center ( in Movement Disorders); 3 year full-time laboratory-based NHMRC grant-funded research; Deputy Directorship of the Melbourne Neuromuscular Research Center, heading the mitochondrial research group at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne and a NATA accredited mitochondrial genetic testing service; 8 years as Director of Neurology at Flinders Medical Center, establishing an integrated Stroke Unit and the first comprehensive Deep Brain Stimulation service in South Australia; and finally- returning to Melbourne as Professor of Neuroscience and Director of Neurology at Monash Medical Center from 2010-2016. His special interest is the medical and surgical treatment of movement disorders.

Professor Linda Kristjanson

Former Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology (2011-2020).

Emeritus Professor Linda Kristjanson AO has had an international research career in palliative care, receiving competitive research funding from national organisations in Canada, the United States and Australia. Her areas of study included patients with advanced cancer and individuals with progressive neurological conditions. Her focus was the alleviation of symptom distress and improvement in quality of life. Professor Kristjanson is currently the President of the National Stroke Foundation and also serves as a non-executive director on a number of Boards.

Professor Trevor Kilpatrick

Professor of Neurology, University of Melbourne

Director of MS Team, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health

Trevor’s research focuses on the molecular and cellular neuroscience of myelination, demyelinating disease and neural regeneration, as well as the aetiology and pathogenesis of MS. His experience includes leading translational projects that involve deep collaborative interactions between biologists, molecular geneticists, imaging scientists, clinical researchers, epidemiologists and bioinformaticians. His key career achievements include cloning of mammalian neural precursors and the discovery of neurotrophic factors for myelinating cells that are damaged by MS. He also co-founded the Ausimmune Consortium which has since evolved into a pre-eminent national and international resource that has advanced our understanding of the epidemiology of MS – clarifying the contributions of inadequate sunlight exposure and vitamin D deficiency, smoking, obesity and the Epstein-Barr virus to disease activity. He was also a founder of the ANZgene Consortium, which has transformed our understanding of genetic contributions to MS, with over 200 susceptibility loci now identified.

Vincent Arthur

Managing Director of logistics business, L Arthur Pty Ltd since 2003.

Vincent brings a deep commercial knowledge from over 30 years executive experience as Managing Director of logistics business L Arthur Pty Ltd and various commercial roles with Rio Tinto Ltd over 10 years. Vincent is also a Director of Villa Maria Catholic Homes and a member of the General Freight Committee of the Victorian Transport Association. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and has also completed post graduate studies in Business.