FightSMA is proud to announce it has added three members to its board of directors: Dan Hayden, Alex Kostyuchenko, and Bill Strong.

Dan Hayden, of Holliston, MA, is a senior management executive with 37 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Since 1999, Hayden has served as senior vice president with Genzyme Corp. and as general manager of the pharmaceuticals business group.

Alex Kostyuchenko is president and CEO of Zurich Benefit Finance in New York City, which is owned by Zurich Financial Services, an insurance-based financial services provider based in Zurich, Switzerland. He and his wife, Rebecca, have a five year-old-daughter who has been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Bill Strong, CPA, of Santa Barbara, CA, is director of corporate development for Santa Barbara-based QFour Digital, Inc. and co-founder of the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, a nonprofit that raises awareness and funding for SMA research. He and his wife recently created an online petition supporting SMA funding at the federal level which has attracted more than 73,500 signatures.

Extended bios are available below.

FightSMA (www.fightsma.org) was founded in 1991 to accelerate research for a treatment or cure for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of infant death. The group has 19 chapters in the United States and Canada and has funded SMA research projects at 43 universities and research organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.

Extended bios

Dan Hayden is a senior management executive with thirty seven years experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries. Since 1999, Dan has served as Senior Vice President in the Genzyme Corporation and General Manager of the Pharmaceuticals business unit, an organization of 125 employees headquartered in Cambridge, MA with its operations group located in Liestal, Switzerland. Dan also Chairman and Managing Director of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals AG, a Swiss legal entity comprised of five external and & internal board members. Dan is fully accountable for the business’s P&L performance. His span of control includes manufacturing operations; R&D; sales, marketing & customer service; business & technology development and finance. The Pharmaceuticals business is comprised of two U.S. marketed products (Welchol sold by Daicchi Sankyo and Leuprolide sold by Par Pharmaceutical); a drug delivery technology platform focused on transport of pharmaceutical drugs across the blood brain barrier and a 2nd technology that enhances circulation time of drugs in the blood (both are marketed to other Pharmaceutical / Biotech companies); and, a core specialty pharma-chemicals custom manufacturing business focused in the Lipid & Peptide API / Critical Intermediates markets. Dan and his wife Diane of 38 years have two daughters Melissa and Jennifer and three grandsons. Dan and Diane make their home in Holliston, Massachusetts.

Alex Kostyuchenko resides in Brooklyn, New York and is father to Jacqueline, 5 years old (SMA Type III) and husband to Rebecca. Alex is the President and CEO of Zurich Benefit Finance LLC in New York and is responsible for developing and managing Business Owned Life Insurance products. His primary responsibility is to manage key relationship with leading banks and insurance companies with focus on asset management, risk management and structured products. Zurich Benefit Finance LLC is owned by Zurich Financial Services an insurance – based financial services provider with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Financial Services is the second largest commercial insurer in the United States. Before joining Zurich in October 2000, Alex was with KBC Bank, a Belgian universal multi-channel bank, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises. Alex is a graduate of New York University, Leonard Stern Business School, with a degree in Finance and International Business.

Bill Strong resides in Santa Barbara, California and is father to Gwendolyn, 23 months (SMA Type I) and husband to Victoria. Bill has over 10 years of experience working with technology companies in various roles. He currently serves as Director of Corporate Development for QFour Digital, Inc., a private equity backed investment vehicle focused on acquiring and integrating forward thinking online marketing solutions providers. Prior to joining QFour Digital in 2007, Bill was General Manager of Vendare Media Group’s domain name investment and monetization group where he built the company into one of the largest domain name holders in the world. Mr. Strong is also the co-founder of the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness about and fund research for SMA and support those impacted by SMA and other life-altering diseases. Bill is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California.