Denis Rizzuto graduated from the University of Bridgeport with a degree in Business Administration. He served as Director of Private Label Sales at Zotos for several years before joining his father at Conair, where he was Senior Vice President of Liquid Sales and Operations. In 2011, Denis was named to the Conair Board of Directors. As the third generation of Rizzutos to hold a board position, he is an integral part of both Conair’s past and its future. 

Denis is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Promise Fund, which is a part of New York Polytechnic University. He is also a former Director, Treasurer and Secretary of River West Condo Association. 

Denis’ beloved wife, Christie, was diagnosed with ALS in 2009, and courageously fought this debilitating disease with the grace and dignity that she lived by. Her battle ceased when she passed in 2019. Denis is a devoted, loving and involved dad to the couple’s daughter, Francesca. Because of this very personal involvement with ALS, Denis is passionate about finding a cure in the foreseeable future.

Clive Svendsen, PhD did his pre doctoral training at Harvard University and received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in England where he then established a stem cell research group before moving to the University of Wisconsin in 2000 to became Professor of Neurology and Anatomy, Director of an NIH funded Stem Cell Training Program and Co-Director of the University of Wisconsin Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.

In 2010 he moved to Los Angeles to establish and direct the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute which currently has 15 faculty members and approximately 100 staff. One focus of his current research is to derive cells from patients with specific disorders which can then be “reprogrammed” to a primitive state and used as powerful models of human disease.

Dr. Svendsen led the first groups to successfully model both Spinal Muscular Atrophy and more recently Huntington’s Disease using this technology. The other side of his research involves cutting edge clinical trials. He was involved with one of the first growth factor treatments for Parkinson’s Disease and is currently working closely with neurosurgeons, neurologists and other scientists to develop novel ways of using stem cells modified to release powerful growth factors to treat patients with neurological diseases such as ALS, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Ed Rapp retired from Caterpillar Inc. in July 2016. Prior to his retirement, Ed was a Caterpillar Inc. Group President. During his time in the Caterpillar Executive Office, he led Resource industries and Construction Industries and was the company’s CFO. Rapp has more than thirty-seven years of global experience and has lived and worked in the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Rapp’s career was cut short when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in late 2015. Ed serves on the Executive Committee of ALS Finding a Cure and is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Answer ALS. Rapp is also a member of the AbbVie and XOS board of directors and serves on the Strategic Development board for the University of Missouri Business School.

Rapp has a BSBA degree in finance from the University of Missouri–Columbia. Rapp and his wife, Ann, reside in Cary, North Carolina, near their children and grandsons.

Luca Marinelli, PhD is Senior Principal Scientist in the Biology and Applied Physics organization at GE Research. He has held individual contributor and managerial roles at GE Research for the past 16 years, leading projects spanning multiple modalities in medical imaging, primarily in MRI. His research interests span quantitative MRI, fast MR imaging and advanced algorithms for accelerated image acquisition and reconstruction, including the development of early compressed sensing applications to MRI, and diffusion imaging in the brain.

From 2014 to 2019, through a partnership between GE and the National Football League, Luca co-led a multi-site clinical research study on advanced neuroimaging in mild TBI and directed a multidisciplinary global team of scientists and engineers with the goal of identifying promising imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of mild TBI.

From 2011 to mid-2014, Luca directed the MRI Laboratory at GE Research, which focuses on developing and delivering MRI technologies, and was responsible for all programs in the lab. Prior to joining GE, Dr. Marinelli conducted postdoctoral research in Information Theory at Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies.

Luca received his PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 2002, where he studied low temperature thermodynamic and transport properties of high-temperature superconductors in a strong magnetic field.

Luca Marinelli holds 25 patents and is a coauthor on over 100 journal publications, book chapters, and conference proceedings.

Tom Gentile was named president and chief executive officer of Spirit AeroSystems in August 2016. Spirit AeroSystems is an $8 billion global leader in the manufacture of structures for commercial and military aircraft. Prior to Spirit, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of GE Capital. Before this role, Gentile was president and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, a $14 billion diagnostic imaging business. He also served as president and CEO of GE Aviation Services, a $7 billion global enterprise providing maintenance, repair, and overhaul as well as spare parts to GE Aviation’s global fleet of jet engines for commercial airlines.

Gentile began his career at GE in 1998, holding a succession of leadership roles across GE Capital in the U.S., France and Australia. He has held numerous other leadership and strategy roles with McKinsey and Company, U.S. broadcaster CBS and General Motors. In addition, Gentile was previously chairman of the board directors of InSightec, a global leader in non-invasive image guided therapy.

An active community member, Gentile serves on the governing boards of the Greater Wichita Partnership and Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), as well as serving as Chairperson of the AIA Civil Aviation Leadership Council. Gentile also was elected to the Board of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2019. Gentile is a champion of Spirit’s Good Neighbor Fund employee giving program which raises $2 million annually for local charities, and also serves as a Trustee of the ALS Finding a Cure organization.

He previously served on the Greater Milwaukee Committee, as well as on the boards of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, Connecticut. Gentile earned his bachelor’s degree in economics magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard University, and studied international relations at the London School of Economics.

Gentile was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He and his wife, Julie, have three children.

Peter Foss retired from GE in March of 2013, after completing a 36-year career. He returned to GE in November of 2013, joining the GE Healthcare team to be responsible for the GE/NFL brain research effort, which he was instrumental in starting before his retirement. During Foss’s career at GE he held many positions, the last of which was President, Olympic Sponsorship and Corporate Sales, a post he held from 2003 until his retirement in 2013.

In addition to his work with GE’s global Olympic Sponsorship and interface with the NFL, while at GE Foss led a team to develop and implement growth strategies with a select group of GE’s strategic global customers, managed the Sales Force Effectiveness and Corporate Sales programs and managed the Government Selling program.

Prior to his work at GE Corporate, Peter served for six years as the President of GE Polymerland. GE Polymerland was the commercial organization representing GE Plastics in the global marketplace and was an early adopter and leader in e-commerce.

Prior to Polymerland, Foss served in various commercial roles in the company, including introducing LEXAN® film in the 1970s, and was the Market Development Manager on the ULTEM® introduction team in 1982. He has also served as the Regional General Manager for four of the GE Plastics regions, including leading the GE Plastics effort in Mexico in the mid-1990s. He also spent four years in Columbus, Ohio at GE Superabrasives as the General Manager of Marketing.

Foss is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He resides in South Carolina with his wife Mary.

Randy Fishman is a member of the Board of Directors of Citymeals on Wheels, and New York City Ballet. Mrs. Fishman also devotes much of her time to continuing the work that she and her late husband, Jay S. Fishman, began in support of ALS research projects and patient care programs for the ALS community. She is co-founder and member of the Advisory Board of Answer ALS.

In addition, Mrs. Fishman is a founder and key advisor to both the ALS Augmentative Communication Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Home Assisted Ventilation Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of ALS Finding a Cure. Mrs. Fishman holds a B.S. in Physical Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis.

Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD, F.A.C.S is the Chair and the Theodore Roberts Endowed Professor of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. In addition, he is Director of the Neurological Surgery Residency Program and Director of the UW Medicine Neurosciences Institute. His numerous clinical interests include pediatric and adult brain tumors, trauma surgery, congenital malformations, and minimally invasive endoscopic brain surgery.

Dr. Ellenbogen has served as Chair, American Board of Neurological Surgeons; President, Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS); President, The American Society of Pediatric Neurological Surgery; and President, Society of University Neurosurgeons. He has NIH-funding for research on molecular imaging and targeted therapies of brain tumors, and an NIH training grant for recruiting and training underrepresented minorities in Neurosciences.

Dr. Ellenbogen completed his neurosurgery training in 1989 at The Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School Program. Prior to joining the University of Washington, Dr. Ellenbogen was Chairman of the National Capital Area Neurosurgery Consortium and Residency Program Director, (Walter Reed Army Medical Center

and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center), and Neurosurgery Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Department of Defense Veterans Head Injury Program, also at Walter Reed Medical Center. Dr. Ellenbogen also served as Commander of the 252nd Medical Detachment KE Team (XIII Airborne Corp) during Operation Desert Shield/Storm, and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.

Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc is the Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service, Director, Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Dr. Cudkowicz is co-founder and former director of the Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI). She is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 100 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic led clinical trials and research studies in ALS.

Dr. Cudkowicz is Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). The NeuroNEXT network is an efficient phase II network to develop innovative and new treatments for people with neurological disorders. She is the recipient of the 2006 Wings over Wall Street MDA award, 2009 Sheila Essey Award from the American Academy of Neurology, 2012 Prize4life Pioneer Award, 2017 Forbes Norris Award from the International MND Society, and the 2018 Pinnacle Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Robert H. Brown Jr., MD, DPhil is the director of the Program in Neurotherapeutics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Brown is an internationally known researcher and clinician leading the quest to cure neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Dr. Brown founded the Day Neuromuscular Laboratory in 1984 to investigate neuromuscular diseases, and continues his work with the Day Lab today at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In 1993, a team of researchers led by Dr. Brown discovered the first gene linked to the inherited form of ALS, a protein anti-oxidant known as superoxide dismutase, or SOD1.

In addition to his work with ALS, Dr. Brown has also identified disease genes in other inherited neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases such as hyperkalemic periodic paralysis, Miyoshi muscular dystrophy and hereditary sensory neuropathy.

Dr. Brown is well known for his work with patient advocacy groups and charitable organizations, such as Project ALS and the ALS Finding a Cure. He is also a founding member of the NEALS Consortium and is president of the ALS Therapy Alliance’s Board of Directors. Among the many honors Dr. Brown has received for his research and clinical work with neuromuscular diseases are the National A.L.S. Foundation Fellowship from 1980 to 1982; Plenary Lecturer at the American Academy of Neurology in 2002 and 2007.

Dr. Brown is a member of the American Neurological Association and has been inducted into the Institute of Medicine. In 2011 he was named a member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP).