The impact of corporate partnerships

We are proud to be partnering with corporations who support our quest to help people to live longer, healthier and smarter lives. 

Lexus of Brisbane

“QBI may be local to Brisbane, but it’s a world-renowned research institute that leads the way in dementia research. Lexus of Brisbane is so proud of our partnership: we can have an enormous impact that truly affects everyone in Brisbane, and indeed, beyond”. – Allison Scifleet, Guest Experience Manager.

Lexus of Brisbane has been an integral part of the local Brisbane community for close to 45 years, and a major supporter of QBI since 2019. Allison believes it’s important for business to align with strong local grassroots causes, particularly from a staff morale perspective. 

“When we partner with organisations like QBI and offer to match our employees’ workplace giving, it’s a win-win situation.” 

Lexus of Brisbane also supports the QBI Lexus Alzheimers’ Gala and the QBI/Lexus of Brisbane Spring High Tea: two wonderful events that raise awareness and funds for dementia research and student research support. 

McKinney’s Jewellers

John McKinney emigrated from Ireland to Australia, opening his first shop in Toowoomba, Queensland in 1884. Following in his pioneering footsteps, his descendants grew and expanded the family luxury goods business to become one of the most respected family businesses in Australia. The McKinney Family values their impeccable reputation for providing the finest merchandise and bespoke personal service.

With signature McKinney passion and creativity, Margot McKinney OAM has leveraged the relationships forged by her family over more than a century and a quarter, to establish her own reputation as a world-renowned jewellery designer. Fourth generation in the family business, Margot McKinney’s life’s passion is creating exceptional pieces of jewellery from the finest and rarest gems in the world. Starting her career at an early age in the 138-year-old McKinney family business, she has risen to global acclaim.

For the past 10 years, McKinneys has partnered with QBI to help raise funds for critical neuroscience research through the Ross Maclean Fellowship MND Race Day, Lexus Alzheimer’s Gala and other key events.

In 2023, Andrew McKinney-Welch, Margot McKinney and Pat Goldsworthy from Ray White New Farm, joined forces to create a sensational new event, to raise funds for dementia research at QBI, called 'Dining for Dementia'. On 26 October, over 300 guest attended the a heartwarming fundraising event dedicated to bringing hope and relief to countless lives and families by actively contributing to research aiding the search for a cure for dementia. Andrew and Pat have experienced firsthand the devastating effects of this disease on their own families and with this in mind bought together the community to raise $500 000 for research in one evening. 

.

Rotary Queensland 

Rotary Queensland, in their centenary year, have established the break through project to help raise $5 million by 2025 to benefit the Queensland Brain Institute. The aim of the project is to achieve an Endowed Chair, which will exist in perpetuity at QBI. 

Money raised will give a leading neuroscientist and their team the freedom to be brave and innovative and provide the opportunity to explore new horizons that have never been investigated before. Who knows, Rotary's support could be the catalyst that changes lives forever more.

Morgans Foundation

The Morgans Foundation have partnered with the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) since 2016 as part of their remit to support local communities and raise funds for charities that are changing Australian lives. The Foundation encourages staff giving by matching all gifts from their branches, ensuring their giving is truly for the community, by the community. 

Because of this staff-driven approach to philanthropy, QBI have long been beneficiaries of the Morgans Foundation’s generosity. 

HopgoodGanim Lawyers

A judicious encounter with an elderly Japanese businessman steered leading Australian legal and advisory firm HopgoodGanim Lawyers towards QBI’s quest to find a cure for motor neuron disease.

In the buoyant Japanese investor market of the late 80s, law firm HopgoodGanim decided they needed a conduit between themselves and their Japanese-speaking clients. A contact referred them to an elderly gentleman in Japan, Joji (George) Noda, who had both paralegal and commerce experience.

Born in Canada, George was known as a Nisei – a second-generation Japanese living in a foreign land. His parents sent their son back to Japan, and unfortunately it was close to the eve of WWII. George was conscripted into the Japanese army and became a conscientious objector. He was shot at and bombed, but remarkably survived the war.  

With his Canadian accent and fluent Japanese, George was earmarked and became a valued staffer on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff and assisted with the work of rebuilding Japan. Estranged from his family in his late 60s, George arrived in Brisbane to join HopgoodGanim Lawyers and was an instant hit with his Japanese conversational skills. The staff quickly embraced him, and he worked with the firm for more than 10 years. Sadly he was diagnosed in his 80s with advanced motor neuron disease (MND).

According to Managing Partner Bruce Humphrys, the team at HopgoodGanim’s Brisbane office became like George’s family. They supported George in sickness and in health, arranging home care and coordinating meal drops, home nursing visits and social outings for him later in his life.  Even his funeral arrangements were handled by the firm’s partners and team, and his ashes have a special place in HopgoodGanim’s Brisbane office today.

MND is a debilitating neurological disease for which there are currently no therapies that have a meaningful benefit for patients. In Australia, there is only one drug approved for MND treatment and it extends a person’s lifespan by a couple of months, but doesn’t improve a person’s quality of life. In the US, there are two drugs approved for use by the FDA; however, both have limited efficacy.

Not surprisingly, motor neuron research at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) became an obvious fit for HopgoodGanim’s philanthropic pursuits and they have proudly supported QBI’s fundraising initiatives for many years.

For many reasons, including in George’s memory, Bruce decided to join QBI’s advisory board after a meeting with QBI Director Professor Pankaj Sah and he continues to provide strategic advice on the commercialisation of the Institute’s research and engagement with the community.

QBI is currently overseeing the clinical trial of a drug for motor neuron disease that may protect motor neurons and delay progression of the disease.

Support of QBI through corporate philanthropy, such as by the team at HopgoodGanim Lawyers, not only helps research progress but is also raising awareness of the high-quality research taking place in Queensland that may have a global impact into the future.

The Index Group

Successful business and family man, Ross Maclean, had a tough fight on his hands. At 80, he was battling a debilitating disease, for which there is currently no adequate treatment or cure — Motor Neuron Disease.

True to his fighting spirit and to raise funds for the appointment of a research scientist dedicated to studying MND, Ross' company, the Index Group, underwrote fundraising for The Ross Maclean Fellowship, launched in early 2004. The Fellowship was created after Mr Maclean's meetings with Professor Perry Bartlett, Foundation Chair in Molecular Neuroscience and QBI inaugural Director.

Mr Maclean was diagnosed with MND around the year 2000 after experiencing numbness in some of his limbs, followed by a gradual deterioration in fine motor skills, such as using keys, writing, and turning on switches. When diagnosed with MND, Mr Maclean was Owner and Managing Director of the Index Group of Companies, one of Queensland's top 400 privately owned companies. 

The Index Group of Company's interests have been vast and diverse and have included designing and manufacturing commercial water filtration equipment, selling secondhand mining and quarrying equipment, exploring Tasmanian silica flour (sand) for LCD glass manufacture and previously built barges and tugs.

For the past 19 years, the Index Group has been a major supporter of QBI and continues to encourage the broader community to raise funds for the progression of motor neuron disease research. The Ross Maclean Fellowship is one of the few research positions in Australia dedicated to fundamental research of the underlying neurological factors behind motor neuron disease. 

Thank you to our other corporate partners for their ongoing support:

-    Philip Johnson, ecco
-    White Label Noba