Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation Announces New Executive Director

The Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AAMDSIF), the world's leading non-profit health organization dedicated to serving patients afflicted with bone marrow failure disease, announced today that Neil Horikoshi has been named the Foundation's new Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Mr. Horikoshi succeeds Kathleen Weis, who resigned from her position to pursue new opportunities.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors of AAMDSIF, we wish to thank Kathleen Weis for her service to the Foundation," said Kevin Lyons-Tarr, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of AAMDSIF. "During over three-plus years as the Foundation's CEO and Executive Director, Kathleen has made numerous and major contributions to the Foundation's progress and reputation. She has worked tirelessly, especially in broadening the Foundation's partnerships and visibility with other organizations, managing our relationship with the members of the MDS Clinical Research Consortium and medical community, and raising funds from both established and new pharma, corporate and individual donors. She has maintained the highest ethical standards at the Foundation and in our interactions with patients, funders and physicians. She has always reminded us of the important and central work the Foundation does to help patients and caregivers cope with their diagnosis, treatment and life beyond bone marrow failure diseases. We wish Kathleen well and all the best in her future endeavors. We are grateful to her for the time she spent as part of our AAMDSIF family," said Mr. Lyons-Tarr.

Neil Horikoshi is chairman emeritus of the AAMDSIF Board of Directors and an aplastic anemia patient/survivor. Mr. Horikoshi recently retired as the president and executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund ("APIASF"), an organization he joined in 2008 after a distinguished 30-year career at International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), where he served in a variety of legal and executive management positions in the United States and Asia Pacific. He is an Advisory Council member for both the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS). He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Go for Broke National Education Center and as an Advisory Council Member for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Gates Millennium Scholars Program. Mr. Horikoshi resigned from the AAMDSIF Board of Directors to accept the role of the Foundation's CEO and Executive Director.