National Parkinson Foundation and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation Complete Merger to Form the Parkinson’s Foundation

August 1, 2016

                      

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We are thrilled to share with you the news that National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF) have finalized our merger.  Moving forward, we will operate as the Parkinson’s Foundation with offices in New York City and Miami.  While we have already begun integrating our programs and operations, each division will continue to communicate with our supporters under the legacy brand until the Parkinson’s Foundation brand is fully integrated.

As we set out to complete this merger, we were adamant that the Parkinson’s Foundation must be greater than the sum of our individual parts.  We share a unity of purpose — working toward a world without Parkinson’s disease and focusing on the best possible lives now for people living with the disease.  We owe it to them to move the science and care forward.  The merger allows us to do just that even better — to expand our reach and our impact and to be more effective in everything we do.

Indeed, the coming together has redoubled our shared spirit of purpose.  Our focus will be in three key areas:

• Seeking a cure: We support promising scientific research by investing in individual and collaborative research and training projects as well as in an extensive network of research and medical centers in the United States and around the world. 
• Providing care and support: Until there is a cure, we remain focused on the care and wellbeing of people living with Parkinson’s today.  This has always been, and remains, a hallmark of our leading research and educational work. 
• Championing a better future: To do all this, we will expand our advocacy and community outreach efforts to ensure that the response to this disease matches the urgent need.

Of course, we cannot do this alone.  We will continue to collaborate with our allied organizations in the Parkinson’s community.  And we will look for ways to further enhance our impact in the field, both through collaborations as well as additional strategic combinations. 

The merger presents extraordinary opportunities for the future, but rest assured, we are also very focused on the present.  While we do not anticipate any significant changes to our exceptional programs — from our Centers of Excellence and individual and collaborative research and training programs around the world to our helpline services and education and advocacy programs in communities across the country — we embrace the opportunity of integrating the two organizations as an occasion for renewed commitment, improvement, efficiencies and broader impact. 

One new element that we are very excited about is the search for a new Chief Executive Officer.  A joint Search Committee of the Board has kicked off the search, working with the executive search firm Russell Reynolds to recruit a dynamic leader for the future.  We remain enormously grateful to Robin Elliott and Paul Blom for their essential leadership during this important transition.

Meanwhile, the Parkinson’s Foundation will be governed by a Board of Directors that will include 11 members from each of the legacy organizations.  The two of us will serve as Board Chairs in consecutive terms, with John, former NPF Chair, serving the first term followed by Howard, former PDF Chair.  The full Board list is available here.

As many of you know, the battle against Parkinson’s is very personal to us.  Both of our fathers had Parkinson’s when they passed.  John’s mother has had two serious falls in the past year while living with Parkinson’s.  Each of us, along with our Board and staff, know how important it is to act with urgency, to make a difference and to provide hope for the Parkinson’s community, including caregivers.  We are driven by the perspective, needs and priorities of people living with the disease and, together, we will be a formidable and effective force in the fight against Parkinson’s.

John Kozyak

Chair, Parkinson's Foundation

Howard Morgan

Vice Chair, Parkinson's Foundation

The Parkinson’s Foundation Board of Directors includes the following individuals:

John Kozyak, Esq. – Chair 
Founding partner of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton
Miami, Florida

Howard Morgan – Vice Chair
Partner and Senior Managing Director
Argand Partners
New York, New York

Stephen Ackerman – Assistant Treasurer
Executive Director, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
New York, New York

Andrew Albert – Chair of Nominating and Governance Committee
Managing Director and Operating Partner of Svoboda Capital Partners, LLC
Chicago, Illinois

Constance Woodruff Atwell, Ph.D. – Interim Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee
Former Director of the Division of Extramural Research at NIH/NINDS
Pinehurst, North Carolina

J. Gordon Beckham, Jr.
President and CEO of InfoSys McCamish Systems, LLC
Atlanta, Georgia

Marshall Burack, Esq. — Assistant Secretary
Partner at Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg
Miami, Florida

Karen Elizabeth Burke, M.D., Ph.D.
Dermatologist and research scientist on the faculties of Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Cabrini Medical Center
New York, New York

Alessandro Di Rocco, M.D.
Founders Professor of Neurology and Chief, Division of Movement Disorders, Director, The Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders, (a National Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence) NYU Langone Medical Center
New York, New York

Alberto Dosal – Treasurer
Chairman and CEO of Dosal Capital
Miami, Florida

G. Pennington Egbert III – Chair of the Development Committee
Managing Director, Head of Global Markets Research, Americas at Nomura Securities International
New York, New York

Stanley Fahn, M.D.
H. Houston Merritt Professor of Neurology and Director Emeritus, Division of Movement Disorders, Department of Neurology at the PDF Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center
New York, New York

Richard Field
Co-Founder of Lending Tree, LLC
New Canaan, Connecticut

Guido Goldman, Ph.D.
Director of the Program for the Study of Germany at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies of Harvard University
Miami, Florida

Stephanie Goldman 
Incoming President of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and member of the Board of Lighthouse International
Norwood, New Jersey

Arlene Levine
Chair of the Fund for Women and Girls Philanthropic Breakfast of the New York Community Trust of Westchester County
Scarsdale, New York

Mindy McIlroy
Executive Vice President of Terranova Corporation
Miami, Florida

Robert Melzer 
Former President and CEO of Property Capital Trust, Boston and former Chair of the Board of Directors, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston
Boston, Massachusetts

Gail Milhous
Private philanthropist and community activist
Boca Raton, Florida

Michael S. Okun, M.D.
Adelaide Lackner Professor and Chairman of Neurology, University of Florida
Co-Director UF Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration
Gainesville, Florida

Timothy A. Pedley, M.D.
Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Neurology at Columbia University and past President of the American Academy of Neurology
New York, New York

Gregory Romero – Secretary 
Vice President of KE Tube, Inc.
Gardner, Massachusetts

# # #

About the Parkinson’s Foundation 
The Parkinson’s Foundation is working toward a world without Parkinson’s disease. Formed by the merger of National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF) in August 2016, the mission of the Parkinson’s Foundation is to invest in promising scientific research that will end Parkinson’s disease and improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s, and their families, through improved treatments, support and the best care. For more information, visit www.parkinson.org or www.pdf.org, or call (800) 4PD-INFO (473-4636) or (800) 457-6676.

About Parkinson's Disease (PD)
Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that affects nearly one million people in the US and over 10 million worldwide. Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's and is the 14th leading cause of death in the US. It is associated with a loss of motor control (e.g., shaking or tremor at rest and lack of facial expression) as well as non-motor symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety). Although promising research is being conducted, there is currently no cure for Parkinson's disease. 

Source Date: Jul 29 2016

http://www.pdf.org/en/media_pr/release/pr_1469813165