The Alpha-1 Project (TAP) is a wholly-owned for profit subsidiary of the Alpha-1 Foundation singularly focused on providing critical funding and advice to speed the commercialization of therapies for the elimination of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and liver disease caused by Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1).

TAP will focus funding into highly promising drug therapies or devices in the translational research or clinical trial stage of development to speed the commercialization of these therapies. It will leverage the experience and scientific knowledge of the Alpha-1 Foundation as well as the drug therapy and device commercialization expertise of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Our Business and Scientific Advisory Council will guide the establishment of the therapeutic strategies and ensure that TAP’s investments in various drug and device therapy projects is fiscally sound.

Jean-Marc D. Quach

President and CEO

Jean-Marc Quach is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Alpha-1 Project, Inc. responsible for overall coordination and management activities. Prior to joining The Alpha-1 Project, Inc., his most recent position was Vice President at Bayer Diabetes Care responsible for… managed care, durable medical equipment marketing, reimbursement, government, and contracts.

Prior to Bayer, he was with Express Scripts Inc., where he held various leadership roles in line and staff positions from 1998 to 2006. He was the Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Market Analysis from 2004 to 2006. As the Vice-President and General Manager of the Express Scripts Specialty Distribution Services subsidiary, he presided over the growth of a start-up to a $100 million entity. He also worked at NYLCare Health Plans (now Aetna) as its director of pharmacy, and at American Express Company.

He earned his B.A. in International Business Administration (Magna Cum Laude) from the American University of Paris, in Paris, France, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Marcia F. Ritchie

COO

Ms. Ritchie is Chief Operating Officer of The Alpha-1 Project, Inc. She is also the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Alpha-1 Foundation where she directs day-to-day operations in the areas of development, communications, programs and administration. Ms. Ritchie was formerly Director, Management Operations, of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland where she worked from 1989 to 2003. During her tenure at the CF Foundation, Ms. Ritchie created and implemented new marketing strategies, managed fundraising chapters and special projects and oversaw the development and management of an annual $100 million operating budget. Prior to that, Ms. Ritchie worked as a corporate financial analyst for a vertically integrated manufacturer and marketer of paper products. Ms. Ritchie received her BBA and MBA in Marketing Management from Pace University in New York.

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• Gordon E. Cadwgan, Jr., Ph.D.
• Igor Gonda, Ph.D
• Kenneth A. Irvine
• Albert (Ab) Rees
• Robert A. Sandhaus, M.D., Ph.D.
• Wayne E. (Chip) Withers, Jr.
• Henry R. Moehring, M.B.A.
• Edward N. Krapels, Ph.D.

Gordon Cadwgan was diagnosed with Alpha-1 in 1992. He and his wife, Ruth, seeking information and support for his mysterious condition, attended the first Alpha-1 Association annual meeting in Minneapolis and have missed only two since then. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) in 1967 and holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry (1975) from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. He worked for Union Carbide in West Virginia and DuPont in Wilmington, DE and is now retired on disability. Mr. Cadwgan is a trustee of the Board of Directors of his family's charitable foundation. Since moving to Florida in 2000, he and his wife have been active with the Alpha-1 Foundation and Alpha-1 Association, leading a support group in West Palm Beach and working to raise money to find "the cure." Mr. Cadwgan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alpha-1 Foundation, The Alpha-1 Project and the COPD Foundation.

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Dr. Igor Gonda, Ph.D. has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of Aradigm Corporation, Hayward, CA, since August 2006. Aradigm's mission is to prevent and treat severe respiratory diseases. Dr. Gonda served as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Acrux Ltd., a public specialty pharmaceutical company in Melbourne, Australia, from December 2001 to August 10, 2006. He has extensive experience in building entrepreneurial research and development groups and corporate partnerships in the pharmaceutical industry. He served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Aradigm Corp. from July 2001 to December 2001 and also served as its Vice President of Research and Development from October 1995 to July 2001. From February 1992 to September 1995, Dr. Gonda served as a Senior Scientist and Group Leader at Genentech, Inc., with responsibility for non-oral drug delivery, and specifically for the inhalation development of Pulmozyme - recombinant human DNase used in the management of the orphan disease cystic fibrosis. Dr.

Gonda has held academic positions at the University of Aston in Birmingham, UK, and the University of Sydney, Australia. Dr. Gonda has a B.Sc. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Leeds University, UK.

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Mr. Irvine is a recently retired director of Scotia Capital, the corporate and investment banking arm of the Bank of Nova Scotia, where he designed and worked on strategic projects which align the capital markets sectors of Scotia Capital and the new economic environment. This required a multi-faceted perspective to create the tactical implementation of tracking and forecasting risk-weighted assets, business implications and decisions regarding loan portfolio analysis for marketing plans and funding allocations.

At Scotia Capital, he had also held the position as the head of investor relations and was a portfolio manager for the US investment advisory company, Citadel Hill Advisors which invested in leveraged loans and high yield bonds. He founded the US private placement effort and helped to establish the high yield group.

Mr. Irvine has over 40 years of Wall Street background and expertise in financial engineering, corporate finance, private placements, securitization and portfolio management. He brings a synthesis of investment banking perspectives through his experience at Bank of Nova Scotia and prior securities firms.

Mr. Irvine received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. Mr. Irvine’s late wife, Bettina, had Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and was the recipient of a double lung transplant. Mr. Irvine serves on the Alpha-1 Foundation’s Development Committee.

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Ab Rees is a retired senior executive of several Fortune 500 Companies, most recently from Railworks Corporation, a $500 million revenue railroad construction, products and services company. Mr. Rees has 35 years of broad, international and domestic general management experience with major achievements in productivity, cost reductions, restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, business growth and customer service. Ab Rees holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Central Arkansas and a degree in Program for Management Development (PMD) from Harvard Business School. He is a member of numerous industry, joint ventures, and in-house Board of Directors. Mr. Rees was also diagnosed with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alpha-1 Foundation and as a Board member of the COPD Foundation.

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Robert A. (Sandy) Sandhaus, M.D., Ph.D., received his bachelor degree in molecular biology from Haverford College, followed by a Ph.D., in cell biology from Stony Brook University in New York, where he also obtained his M.D. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and a pulmonary fellowship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He was then appointed to the UCSF medical faculty and subsequently joined the faculty at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado where, starting in 1981, he developed the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Program.

In addition to his ongoing academic career, he worked for a decade in research and development in the biopharmaceutical industry running clinical development programs at Cortech, Inc., NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Gilead Sciences. Dr. Sandhaus has served on the Boards of Directors of the Alpha-1 Association, the Alpha-1 Foundation, AlphaNet, and the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation. For the past eight years, he has been the Executive Vice President and Medical Director of AlphaNet and the Clinical Director of the Alpha-1 Foundation.

Dr. Sandhaus is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and critical care medicine.

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Chair of the Board of Directors

Mr. Withers is the president of Withers Transfer & Storage of Coral Gables, Florida, Withers Worldwide Forwarders, Inc. and Withers Transportation Systems. Withers Worldwide is a multi-dimensional organization with satisfied clients on six continents. Mr. Withers, who is serving his fifth term as a Coral Gables Commissioner, is a graduate of the University of Florida (UF) and is a member of the UF Foundation Board and the UF Gator Booster Organization. Before being elected to office, Commissioner Withers held appointed positions on the City of Coral Gables' Planning and Zoning, Economic Development, Code Enforcement, Youth Advisory and Parks and Recreation Boards. A fourth generation Miamian, he is also active on the boards of many local and civic charitable organizations, such as the Alpha -1 Foundation. He is a past-president of the Pan American International Mover's Association and is a member of the University of Florida Alumni Association. Mr. Withers served as the Governor's appointee to the small Business Council of the State of Florida and was recently honored as one of Ronald McDonald House's Twelve Good Men.

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Henry R. Moehring was diagnosed with Alpha-1 in February 1997, became an Alpha-1 Association member the same year and remained a member right through the Association’s merger with the Alpha-1 Foundation in mid-2014.

Moehring served on the Association Board from 2010-2014, most recently as the Chair. He also served on the Integration Task Force that brought the Association and the Foundation together. He has participated in research protocols at both the National Institutes of Health and at the University of Florida.

He has a master of business administration degree from Johns Hopkins University and has worked as a healthcare administration professional for 30 years. He was executive director of Asbury Methodist Village, a nonprofit retirement community in Gaithersburg, MD, with 1,300+ residents and 840 employees, before resigning in April 2016 to become the president and CEO at the Alpha-1 Foundation.

Moehring was also serving as vice chair of the Foundation Board when he accepted the request by John Walsh, the Foundation’s co-founder, that he become the President and CEO, while Walsh stepped down to the titles of Founder and Chief Visionary Officer. The Board unanimously accepted the proposal at its meeting in October, 2015.

Among his professional positions, he spent a decade at Asbury Methodist Village, first as associate executive director beginning in 2006, then as executive director from 2013-16. Before that he served as a senior vice president for operations and then as administrator at Collingswood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Rockville, MD, from 1997 to 2006. Moehring’s interest and major goals are to find the cure for Alpha 1 and to raise awareness, educate and support Alphas in the community, educate healthcare professionals and advocate at the state and national levels.

Edward N. Krapels is a leader in the rising industry of non-utility electric transmission and distribution development. He is the CEO of Anbaric, a company behind $5 billion in independent transmission and microgrid projects built to bring lower cost power into dense urban areas, including Manhattan. In 2017, Anbaric formed a joint venture with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), creating Anbaric Development Partners, to develop innovative electric transmission and microgrid projects in North America.

Mr. Krapels is a former financial advisor and risk management consultant. He has published several books and scores of articles in energy industry journals. He was a member of Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s Electricity Advisory Committee from 2010 to 2012.

Mr. Krapels has written several books, dozens of monographs, and scores of articles ranging from the international oil and gas to U.S. electricity markets. He serves on various boards, including the Board of the Alpha Project, the Visiting Committee of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Chicago, and the External Advisory Committee of the Channing Division of Network Medicine of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard University Medical School.

Mr. Krapels earned his BA in International Affairs at the University of North Carolina, his MA in International Affairs at the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

For more information on The Alpha-1 Project, contact us at: info@thealpha-1project.com.