Council members

President and Chief Executive Officer

Alzheimer's Association

Joanne Pike, DrPH, is president and chief executive officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, the global leader in Alzheimer's and dementia research, care, support, and public policy. Since 2022, she has guided the Association’s relentless pursuit of its vision of a world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia.

Dr. Pike leads the organization at a critical moment in the cause. Recent advances, including multiple newly-approved disease-modifying treatments, have ushered in a new era of treatment and care. Amid this new era, Dr. Pike’s public health approach to addressing Alzheimer’s and dementia is informing the Association’s strategy to ensure all communities can benefit from these advances. 

Under Dr. Pike’s leadership, the Association aims to dramatically transform the Alzheimer’s and dementia landscape over the next decade, while continuing to meet the urgency of today for people, families and communities. The effort is guided by a bold 10-year vision launched in 2024 that will guide the country toward a future in which people across all communities routinely take action to promote brain health, reduce their risk, and prevent dementia; widespread screening, diagnosis, quality care, and effective treatments for all stages of dementia are accessible to everyone; and clinical symptoms are able to be slowed, stopped, and even prevented. To achieve this, the Association is activating individuals and communities, accelerating research and its translation, enabling the delivery of quality care, and fostering collaboration and understanding among partners around the country. 

During Dr. Pike’s tenure as president and CEO, she has guided the Association to several significant milestones. In FY24, this included investing a single-year record $109 million across our research platform to advance scientific discovery and support the global research community, growing our movement of grassroots volunteers and partners in communities around the country, and improving the way quality care is delivered for a record 16 million people through collaboration with health systems, health care payers and long-term care providers.

In addition to her role with the Association, Dr. Pike is CEO of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM), a separately incorporated advocacy affiliate working to develop and advance policies to overcome Alzheimer’s and all other dementia through increased investment in research, enhanced care, and improved support. In 2024, the Association and AIM worked with bipartisan Congressional champions to increase federal funding and unanimously renew three of the nation’s most important bipartisan laws on Alzheimer’s and dementia, which are the foundation of our nation’s comprehensive approach to meeting the challenges of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

She also serves as chair of the World Dementia Council, a global coalition focused on driving progress in Alzheimer’s and dementia. 

Dr. Pike joined the Association in 2016. She previously held leadership positions at the American Cancer Society and the Preventive Health Partnership. She holds a doctorate in public health leadership focused on health policy and management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Alzheimer's Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia®. For more information, visit alz.org.

Professor Paulo Caramelli obtained his MD in 1987 at the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Medicine, in São Paulo, Brazil and completed the residency program in Neurology at the Hospital das Clínicas of the USP School of Medicine in 1991. Research fellow at the University of Montréal, Canada, from 1992 to 1994. In 1997, he completed a PhD in Neurological Sciences at the USP School of Medicine. He is currently Professor of Neurology at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Coordinator of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit at UFMG, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he is involved in teaching, in clinical and in research activities. He has supervised 25 MSc, 29 PhD and three post-doctoral students since 2000. Chair (2022-2024) of the Advisory Council of ISTAART (Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment). His research activities are focused on clinical, epidemiological and translational studies on cognitive impairment and dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, including studies investigating education, cognitive reserve and prevention of cognitive decline and dementia in the older adult population.

Suvarna Alladi is Professor of Neurology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India. Dr Alladi was a Commonwealth research fellow in cognitive and behavioural neurology at Cambridge UK. She established one of the first memory clinics in India that provided multi-disciplinary care to more than 3000 patients with dementia. Her areas of interest are Frontotemporal dementia, atypical Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment. Dr Alladi’s group coordinated a multicentric study that adapted cognitive tests for different Indian languages and for illiterates. Her work also focuses on investigating the influence of life-course experiences that include bilingualism, education and social engagement on cognitive resilience. In the background of a rapidly rising burden of dementia, creating awareness and organising community support for dementia became a focus of the Alzheimer’s disease NGO she co-founded.

Dr Alladi has also made an effort to represent priorities of less-developed societies in international platforms and meetings. She is Chair of World Federation of Neurology, Special interest group on Aphasia & Cognitive disorders and Senior Researcher on the multinational project, Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing countries (STRiDE).

Kaarin Anstey is an ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She conducts research in the fields of dementia epidemiology, dementia risk reduction, and older driver safety. She has developed evidence-based, freely available online dementia risk assessments that are used in clinical practice and research, including the recent CogDrisk. She has also led several dementia risk reduction trials using digital health approaches, and contributed to guidelines on dementia risk reduction. In the field of older driver research she has developed risk assessments to identify unsafe drivers, as well as interventions to improve the skills of older drivers without cognitive impairment. Anstey has published more than 500 journal articles and 36 reports for governments and consumer representative organisations. She is Director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute and is a conjoint senior principal research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia. She chairs the International Research Network on Dementia Prevention, is an advisor to the World Health Organisation on brain health and dementia and is a member of the governance committee of the Global Council on Brain Health, an initiative supported by AARP.

Paola Barbarino is the CEO of Alzheimer’s Disease International. Prior to that, she was CEO of LIFE. Her previous senior positions include Cass Business School, Tate, British Library and IIED.

She is a Trustee of The Postal Museum and Lauderdale House. Previously she was a Trustee of Shelter, the UK housing and homelessness charity and of MLA London. She is also the Managing Director of Opaline Limited, a consultancy company specializing in strategy and governance.

 She holds a degree cum laude in Classics from the University of Napoli Federico II, an MA in Field and Analytical Techniques in Archaeology and an MA in Library and Information Science both from University College London.

Howard Bergman MD, FCFP, FRCPC, FCAHS, C.Q.

Howard Bergman is Professor of Family Medicine, Medicine (Geriatrics) and Oncology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University, where he is also a Professor in the School of Population and Global Health.

He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). Dr. Bergman is a Fellow of both the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

He was the inaugural Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine (2001-2015) and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine (2012-2019).

In 2023, Dr. Bergman was named Chevalier de Ordre National du Québec (Knight of the Quebec National Order), the highest distinction awarded by the Quebec government.

Dr. Bergman is one of the 24 members of the World Dementia Council. He is author of the Quebec Alzheimer Plan (2009) working with government on its implementation. He co-leads the Canadian team for healthcare services/system improvement in dementia care (ROSA research team). In 2019, at the request of Public Health Agency of Canada, he chaired the CAHS Expert Panel for the Assessment of Evidence and Best Practices for the development of the Canadian Dementia Strategy.

The Quebec Minister for Seniors, in November 2023, mandated Dr. Bergman to lead the drafting of the first Ministerial Policy and five-year action plan on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.

Dr. Bergman is recognized for his research which has influenced policy change in primary care, aging and dementia with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. 

He has received numerous awards including the College of Family Physicians of Canada  the  W. Victor Johnston Award which recognizes a renowned Canadian or international family medicine leader for continuous and enduring contributions to the specialty of family medicine in Canada and abroad. He was the recipient of the Irma M. Parhad Award for Excellence for outstanding contributions to the understanding and treatment of patients suffering from cognitive disorders by The Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R).

Dr. Bergman is a member of the Board of Directors of the Quebec Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (equivalent of NICE in England).

Niranjan Bose is the Managing Director for Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures, LLC, where he also serves as a Health & Life Sciences Advisor to Mr. Bill Gates. Gates Ventures' programmatic investments in the Alzheimer’s field include the AD Diagnostics Accelerator, Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), EQT Dementia Fund, AD Data Initiative and the European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases (EPND).  

Prior to joining Gates Ventures in 2014, he was the Chief of Staff to the President of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. During his tenure there, he was responsible for managing a portfolio of vaccine investments focused on pediatric diarrheal and respiratory diseases. This work included leading the Gates Foundation’s cholera and rotavirus vaccine strategies.

Before that, Niranjan worked for the management consulting firm Strategic Decisions Group (and SDG Life Sciences), where his engagements with pharma and biotech clients drove strategy development, deal structuring, and portfolio management.

Niranjan holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, an M.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, in Pilani, India. He also holds a Business Bridge Diploma from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Arthena Caston was diagnosed with MCI in 2016. Prior to her diagnosis, Arthena was working in customer support for a large insurance company when she began noticing lapses in her memory. At home, Arthena found favorite pursuits, including reading, cooking, and routine trips to the craft store were becoming more challenging.

Prompted by her worsening memory lapses, Arthena and her husband, Virous, shared their concerns with her primary care physician. After two years of visits to various specialists, Arthena received her diagnosis of MCI at the age of 51.

After a period of reckoning with the news and “feeling numb,” Arthena has regained a sense of purpose and passion for sharing what life is like living with MCI through volunteering and sharing her story. Arthena wants to encourage disease education and the importance of having conversations early when cognitive changes first appear. She also hopes to encourage others to live well with the disease.

Arthena was appointed to the board of her local Georgia Alzheimer’s Association chapter and was selected to serve as a member of the Association’s National Early-Stage Advisory Group during the 2019-202 term. Arthena is currently a member of the Alzheimer’s Association’s national governing board.

Arthena and her husband, Virous, live in Macon, Georgia with their two dogs. They have two adult daughters serving in the U.S. Air Force, and three grandchildren.

Hilary Evans-Newton is Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), the UK’s leading dementia research charity. ARUK is committed to investigating the causes of dementia and developing ways to prevent, diagnose, treat and, ultimately, cure all forms of the condition. As Chief Executive since 2015, Hilary has led the transformation of the charity to one of the leading medical research charities in the UK.  She has overseen a significant growth in income in recent years, with ARUK being one of the fastest growing UK charities. This growth has significantly enhanced the organisation’s ability to fund new innovative projects, particularly those that unite charity, academic and private sectors in the search for new dementia treatments. Hilary is driven and fascinated by ideas that can make a difference and has led major public campaigns to change public perceptions of dementia and break down the stigma around these diseases. Before joining Alzheimer’s Research UK Hilary worked at Age UK, improving the lives of people in later life both in the UK and internationally. She also brings experience of working in Government and with the pharmaceutical industry. Hilary is a Trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities and holds an honorary doctorate in medicine from The University of Exeter.

Phyllis Barkman Ferrell, DrPH, MBA

Phyllis Ferrell is an innovator, investor, and incubator for longevity. She is passionate about brain health, and committed to creating a world that allows our global aging population and economies to thrive. After three decades as a life sciences executive at Eli Lilly & Company, Phyllis retired from the pharmaceutical business and is now working with for-profit and not-for-profit clients to transform health systems around the world. Phyllis is also the Chief Impact Officer for the StartUp Health Alzheimer’s Moonshot where she chairs a global movement to ensure that the field of Alzheimer’s disease has a vibrant and thriving entrepreneurial community and environment for innovation. She loves tackling tough problems with great people and leads cross-functional teams with care and candor.

At Lilly Phyllis held many leadership roles throughout the organization including in medical affairs, medical development, commercial capabilities, sales, marketing business development, strategy, and transformation. In 2011, Phyllis took on the leadership role for the late-stage Alzheimer’s therapeutic and diagnostic assets in Lilly’s pipeline. Since that moment she has been a relentless advocate for the patients living with the disease and those that love them.

In 2020, Phyllis was placed as an executive-on-loan to the World Economic Forum-commissioned Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), where she has served as the visionary and leader of the Healthcare System Preparedness program. DAC is a global multi-stakeholder partnership of organizations aimed at mobilizing the world against Alzheimer’s disease, with the specific focus of ensuring that health systems are prepared to embrace innovation and better care for our global aging population.

Phyllis has a BA in Economics from DePauw University, an MBA from Stanford University, and a doctorate in Global Public Health Leadership from Indiana University. Phyllis is a member of the World Dementia Council, an advisory committee member of the Milken Institute Center for Future of Aging, the USC Clinical Trial Recruiting Laboratory, the ADDF Board of Overseers, and the European Platform for Neurodegenerative Disorders. Phyllis also serves on Boards for the DePauw School of Business and Leadership, the Stanford Business School Fund, the Gates Ventures-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, and HOSA for Future Health Professional. Phyllis is a founding member of Women Against Alzheimer’s and Women of Impact Boone County and the alumna sponsor of the Women in Economics and Business Program at DePauw University. Phyllis is passionate about Alzheimer’s advocacy and brain health so that other boys don’t have to grow up without their grandfathers’ presence as her sons did.

Howard Fillit, MD, is a geriatrician, neuroscientist, and innovative philanthropy executive. He is currently the Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and has led the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation since its founding. Dr. Fillit has held faculty positions at The Rockefeller University, the SUNY-Stony Brook School of Medicine and the Cornell University School of Medicine. In 1987, he joined the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he is a clinical professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care, medicine and neuroscience. Dr. Fillit also maintains a limited private practice in consultative geriatric medicine with a focus on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

He has authored or co-authored more than 350 publications and is the senior editor of Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. Dr. Fillit is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer's Association. He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America and the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Fillit earned his Bachelor of Arts in neurobiology cum laude from Cornell University and his medical degree from the SUNY-Upstate Medical University.

Ishtar Govia is an international advisor and award-winning social science researcher with expertise in brain health and mental health across the lifespan. As a highly experienced senior academic, Dr. Govia has held posts at the University of the West Indies, University College London, London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Michigan. Her leadership and consulting prioritizes co-development with cross-sectoral government and charitable entities for feasibility and scaling up efforts. Her work is powered by a commitment to building out bodies of evidence in resource-constrained contexts, to dementia prevention and management, to related transformations of health and allied care systems, and to community-driven and embedded alignment of innovations for widespread and accessible use. A recognized leader in Caribbean health networks, Dr. Govia centers meaningful partnerships, infrastructure development, and capacity building for sustainable health and social care research, policy, practice, and innovation for underserved and underrepresented communities worldwide.

Drew Holzapfel serves as the Executive Director of The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi), a coalition of leading corporations investing in Alzheimer’s disease research, treatment and care.  He is also the Chief Operating Officer for the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, a multi-year initiative initiated by CEOi and The World Economic Forum in 2021.  Drew is a Managing Partner at High Lantern Group.  Over the course of his career, Drew has held positions in the federal government and with pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, The White House and US Department of Health and Human Services.  As a Managing Partner at High Lantern Group, he opened the firm’s Philadelphia office in 2008 and the Geneva office in 2012.  He leads the firm’s work with top life sciences companies to drive market readiness, position key policy issues, build partnerships and gain third-party organization support. He also has helped many disease advocacy organizations and coalitions develop their positioning strategies and strengthen their influence and impact.  He is a founding Board Member of The Global Alzheimer’s Platform.   Drew a Master’s of Business Administration from The University of Maryland and earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory University.

Harry Johns is the former CEO of the Alzheimer's Association. During his tenure, the Association, working with leading members of the U.S. Congress, has achieved significant public policy advances in care, support, and health infrastructure, as well as increasing federal research investmentsThe Association's global leadership in dementia research reached new highs, with investments of more than $310 million in over 950 projects at the end of his tenure; when Johns took over as president and CEO, those numbers stood at $63 million and 301, respectively.  Harry and his wife Cindy have faced Alzheimer's with their mothers.

Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, is Professor in Clinical Geriatrics at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Center for Alzheimer Research and senior geriatrician and Director for Research & Development of Medical Unit Aging at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Part of her Nordic Brain

Network multidisciplinary research team (around 100 researchers and clinical staff) is located at University of Eastern Finland and Imperial College London, UK, where she has part time position as Professor. Her frontline research findings have been published in leading journals (330+ publications, H-index 75) and she has received numerous prestigious awards.

Dr. Kivipelto’s translational research focuses on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Through epidemiological studies, Prof. Kivipelto has identified various lifestyle and vascular risk factors for dementia and interactions with genetic factors and clarified underlying mechanisms. She is the PI of the landmark FINGER trial and founder and scientific leader of World-Wide FINGERS network. Professor Kivipelto is often invited to leading global dementia conferences and task forces.

Professor Brian Lawlor is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Deputy Executive Director of the Global Brain Health Institute based at Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco. His main clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and on the impact of  loneliness on the brain health and wellbeing of older people. As a psychiatrist, he has been involved in the care of people with dementia for over 30 years. He was the founding director of the Memory Clinic at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin and Chair of the Irish National Dementia Awareness Campaign.   

Husseini K Manji, MD, FRCPC is Global Head, J&J Science for Minds, and immediate past Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience at Janssen Research & Development, one of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical companies. His research has investigated disease- and treatment-induced changes in gene and protein networks that regulate synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders. This has led to the FDA approval of the first novel antidepressant mechanism (NMDA-antagonism) in decades and has been actively involved in developing biomarkers to help refine these diseases. Dr Manji has been inducted into the National Academy of Medicine, the World Economic Forum Global Future Councils and is a member of Harvard/MIT’s Stanley Center SAB, amongst other appointments. He has received a number of awards including the NIMH Director's Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, and has published extensively on the molecular and cellular neurobiology of severe neuropsychiatric disorders and development of novel therapeutics with over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Science and Nature Neuroscience. He is an Honorary Fellow at Oxford University and Visiting Professor at Duke University, and previously served as Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the NIH as well as Director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world.

Dr Tetsu Maruyama is the Executive Director of the ADDI, where he has the pleasure of working with an exceptional team to enable data relevant to Alzheimer’s and related dementias to reach their full potential.

Prior to joining ADDI, Tetsu was the Chief Scientific Officer at the Dementia Discovery Fund, a unique venture capital fund focusing a total investment of $350 million on creating new treatment paradigms for dementia. Before that he was head of Drug Discovery for Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Japan, after leading the GlaxoSmithKline Centre for Cognitive and Neurodegenerative Disorders in Singapore. He began his industry career at Merck Sharp and Dohme’s Neuroscience Research Center in the UK, after 15 years as an academic neuroscientist at Cardiff University and the University of Minnesota.

Tetsu has contributed to the promotion of open science, having been Chairperson of the Board of the Structural Genomics Consortium from 2016 through 2020, and of being a member the Board of Directors of Sage Bionetworks. He is also on the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board of a number of privately held biotech companies and is a member of the World Dementia Council. Tetsu received his PhD in behavioral neuroscience Stanford University and did post-doctoral research in neurophysiology at Yale University.

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, is Director and Robert J. Margolis, M.D., Professor of Business, Medicine and Policy at the Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. He is a physician-economist who focuses on quality and value in health care, including payment reform, real-world evidence and more effective drug and device innovation. Dr. McClellan is at the center of the nation’s efforts to combat the pandemic and the author of a roadmap that details the steps needed for a comprehensive COVID-19 response and safe reopening of our country. He is former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. Dr. McClellan is an independent director on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Alignment Healthcare, and PrognomIQ; co-chairs the Guiding Committee for the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network; and serves as an advisor for Arsenal Capital Group, Blackstone Life Sciences, and MITRE.

Dr Zul Merali is the Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at the Aga Khan University. He is a neuroscientist and pharmacologist by training (McGill University, University of Ottawa and Wharton), with over 40 years of academic engagement. Has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He has successfully used his academic and entrepreneurial ability to help advance forward thinking organizations to transform their approach to mental and brain health, locally, nationally and globally. His objectives have been to build and/or re-engineer organizations to deliver outstanding results and motivating and encouraging others towards positive change, using a holistic ‘Neuron to Neighbourhood’ approach.​

Mr. Ryoji Noritake is the CEO, and Board Member of Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), a Tokyo-based independent and non-profit health policy think tank established in 2004. He also served as Asia-Pacific Lead for Project HOPE, a US-based medical humanitarian aid organization. Through HOPE and HGPI, he has led health system strengthening projects in the Asia-Pacific region and engaged in the US Navy’s medical humanitarian projects. He was a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Policy Discussion Roundtable for Super Ageing Society (2018) and served as a Visiting Scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (2016-2020). He is currently serving as the Salzburg Global Seminar’s Advisory Council, Advisory Board Member of Elsevier Atlas, and the Dementia Innovation Alliance hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan. He was awarded the 32th Takemi Incentive Award in 2022. He is a graduate of Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management and holds a MSc in Medical Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Dr. Adesola Ogunniyi is Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Consultant Neurologist to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. He received his undergraduate medical education at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), residency training at the University College Hospital, Ibadan specializing in neurology, and later had Neuroepidemiology fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, USA (1986-87). His research interest is cognitive neuroscience. He was a site Principal Investigator of the Indianapolis-Ibadan Dementia study and later, Principal Investigator of the Identification of Dementia in Elderly Africans Study – a collaboration between Newcastle University, Northumbria Health Care Trust UK, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Tanzania and University of Ibadan. He is a member of the African Dementia Consortium. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science and he is well published.

Professor Dr Philip Scheltens studied at the VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands, gaining his MD in 1984, and PhD in 1993. He became Professor of Cognitive Neurology and founder of the Alzheimer Center at Amsterdam University Medical Centers in 2000, which he directed until 2022. Currently he devotes most of time heading the Dementia Fund at EQT Life Sciences, that he started in 2020.

He has been the (inter)national PI for over 35 studies, including phase 1-3 multicenter clinical trials. He supervised >75 PhD theses since 2000. He founded the Dutch national plan against dementia and served as chair of the board. He is co-editor-in-chief of Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy and co-leads various EU projects. He authored over 1100 peer reviewed papers and > 75 book chapters and co-edited several major text books.

He is member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2011. In 2016 he was awarded the European Grand Prix for Alzheimer’s Research. In 2020 he was Knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion by the King of the Netherlands. In 2021 he was elected honorary member of the European Academy of Neurology and was appointed chair of the World Dementia Council.  In 2023 he was awarded the Bengt Winblad Life Time Achieverment award by the Alzheimer Association.

Johannes Streffer (MD) is Senior Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Development of Lundbeck and visiting professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp. Johannes is neurologist and psychiatrist; he received is training from the University of Tubingen/ Germany, including his residency in Neurology, before he joined the department of Psychiatry Research at University of Zurich.

Before joining Lundbeck in October 2023, he held positions as CMO of AC Immune SA (Lausanne/ Switzerland) and VP, Head of Translational Medicine Neuroscience at UCB Biopharma SPRL. He started his industry career at Janssen, Pharmaceutical companies of J&J. Johannes has more than 30 years of clinical research experience in neuropsychiatry, both as an investigator and as a researcher in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning all phases of clinical development, with a focus on early experimental trials in neurodegeneration and harnessing biomarkers for patient identification, early translation as well as accelerated approval.
Johannes has been EFPIA lead for EMIF-AD, part of the IMI-EMIF (56 partners; 14 European countries represented; 56MM € worth of resources; “3 projects in one”), that integrated a wide variety of AD data cohorts, biomarker rich single center cohorts to EHRs, to foster the understanding of early markers and change in the predementia AD spectrum.

Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D., is Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, and Director of the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Institute of Neuroimaging and Informatics.

Dr. Toga’s work involves neuroimaging, informatics, AI applications in neuroscience, mapping brain structure and function, and brain atlasing. His research focus is on neurodegenerative disease and specifically works on Alzheimer’s disease.  Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Alzheimer’s Association, the Michael J Fox Foundation among others, as well as industry partners, LONI houses one of the largest computing facilities and largest brain image repositories in the world.

He is an author or co-author of more than 950 peer-reviewed papers, 1100 abstracts and 80 book chapters or books.  He is the founding editor of the journal NeuroImage.  Dr. Toga has received numerous awards, including the Pioneer in Medicine Award, Smithsonian Award for Scientific Innovation and Giovanni DiChiro Award for Outstanding Scientific Research.  He holds the Ghada Irani chair in Neuroscience and has been one of the world’s top researchers on the AD Scientific Index, Top 200 Best Scientists in Neuroscience on Research.com, and listed as one of Thomson Reuters' and Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers for many years.

George Vradenburg convenes the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s (CEOi), a patient-centered industry coalition working with government, researchers and patients to develop and deliver innovative medicines to those touched by dementia and improve their quality of care. He also chairs the Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation (GAP) and is chair and co-founder of USAgainstAlzheimer’s (USA2), which convenes CEOi and is a “disruptive,” entrepreneurial and patient-focused US based NGO committed to stopping Alzheimer’s disease by 2020.

USA2 also founded and leads GAP, the North American arm of a global initiative to re-engineer Alzheimer's clinical trials for greater speed, efficiency, quality and diversity; and co-convenes Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease, a US-based 90+ member coalition of Alzheimer’s-serving organisations mobilising a movement to end Alzheimer's. George Vradenburg is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of Washington, DC. Before his retirement, he served in senior executive positions at AOL/Time Warner, Fox and CBS.

Stacie Weninger is the President of FBRI and a Venture Partner at F-Prime Capital Partners. Dr. Weninger received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, and a B.S. degree in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is President of Alzforum; chairs the Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention; is Chairman of the Board for Rugen Therapeutics; is a member of the Board of Directors for Aratome, Atalanta, Eikonizo, Neumora, Sironax, and Target ALS; is a member of the External Advisory Board for Boston Children’s Hospital’s Rosamund Stone Zander Translational Neuroscience Center; is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards for the Breuer Foundation, Brown University’s Carney Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Denali Therapeutics, the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Brain Research, the MIT Yang-Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics, and the UK Dementia Research Institute. She served as a founding member of the Board of Directors for Denali Therapeutics.