Management

Ron Cohen, M.D., President, CEO, and Founder. Dr. Cohen previously was a principal in the startup team of Advanced Tissue Sciences (ATS), a public biotechnology company in La Jolla, California engaged in growing human tissues in the laboratory—including skin, cartilage, liver and bone marrow—for use in transplantation. Dr. Cohen served as Vice President, Officer and Director of the Company from 1986 through 1992. He established and headed the Company's clinical, regulatory, quality assurance, and investor & public relations departments, also sharing responsibilities for business development, patent prosecution, public stock offerings and preclinical research and development. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. degree in Psychology from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Cohen also serves as a member of the Health Sciences Advisory Council at Columbia.

Mark R. E. Pinney, M.B.A., C.F.A., M.Sc., Chief Financial Officer and Director. Mr. Pinney previously was Vice President, Corporate Finance for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets (1984-1988) and Vice President, Private Transactions at Dillon Read & Co., Inc. (1988-1992). While at Merrill Lynch and Dillon Read he specialized in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He currently is a financial and business consultant. In addition, he serves as a Director of the American Paralysis Association and as Co-Chair of the APA’s Research Committee.

Mr. Pinney received his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Exeter, England, and was graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Business School, where he also was the school’s squash team captain. He brings to Acorda a superb background in corporate finance, business development and strategic planning, as well as an intimate familiarity with issues pertaining to SCI, having himself sustained a chronic spinal cord injury since 1989.

Wise Young, Ph.D., M.D., Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Young is Professor II and Director of the Neuroscience Center at Rutgers University. Dr. Young is one of the preeminent scientists in the fields of spinal cord injury and neurotrauma, SCI animal models, and the pharmacological therapy of SCI. He is Principal Investigator for the Multicenter Animal Spinal Cord Injury Study (MASCIS), funded by the National Institutes of Health; is Editor-in-Chief of Current Concepts in Critical Care and Trauma; and serves on numerous Editorial Boards, including those of Experimental Neurology, Journal of Neurotrauma, Brain Research and Stroke. Dr. Young has received the Wakeman Award for Research in Neurosciences, and a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the American Paralysis Association and of the National Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study executive committee. Dr. Young received his B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Reed College; his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Iowa; and his M.D. from Stanford University.

Andrew R. Blight, Ph.D., Research Director and Scientific Advisor. Dr. Blight is Professor and Director of the Neurosurgery Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is serving as Research Director of the Company on sabbatical leave from UNC. Dr. Blight is a leader in SCI pathophysiology research and has made seminal contributions to the field, including the elucidation of demyelination as a contributing mechanism in SCI. He also pioneered the therapeutic application of 4-AP in SCI animal models and in human clinical trials. Dr. Blight is a recipient of the Smith-Kline Beecham Research Award and serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Neuroscience and the Journal of Neurotrauma. He received his B.Sc. in Zoology and his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of Bristol, U.K.

For Information on our team of Research Scientists click here.

For Information on our Board Of Directors click here.