The role of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations’ Finance Committee is responsible for reviewing the integrity of the organization’s financial reporting and overseeing the independence of the external auditors.
Chair of the Finance Committee
Tammy Moore
Tammy Moore first came to know ALS/MND when a family member was diagnosed in 2008. Over the subsequent five years, she was witness to the challenges her family faced. In 2014,Tammy became the CEO of the ALS Society of Canada, a national organization with a mission to improve the lives of Canadians affected by ALS/MND through advancing research, care, advocacy and information.
Tammy has served on Boards and Advisory Councils internationally, nationally and regionally. With the Alliance specifically, she has served on the Board, Advocacy & Public Policy Forum, Innovation & Technology Advisory Council and Strategic Planning Working Group. She has also been involved with Health Charities Coalition of Canada Board, and Compliance, Accountability, Transparency & Ethics Working Group; Ashiana Holdings; Palliative Care Matters; British Columbia Cancer Agency – Southern Interior; Women’s Enterprise Centre of British Columbia; and local arts, sports and service organizations.
Committee Members
David Ali
David is passionate about helping to make a difference for people living with ALS/MND, having volunteered for the past 20-years on ALS/MND-related boards and in other ways at the local State, national and global levels. As the CEO of MND Australia since March 2021, David is more focused on contributing at an operational level to improve the impact for people across Australia affected by MND today and in the future.David has a background in social policy and corporate services through a range of executive roles across the public sector, Parliament (the legislature), as a management consultant, and in the not-for-profit sector. He also brings much experience as an executive and non-executive director on government and not-for-profit boards. David says it is a real privilege to be part of the talented Board of the International Alliance since December 2017.
Pablo Aquino
Pablo Aquino is a Certified English/Spanish Translator, Journalist, and the Secretary of the ALS Association of Argentina (Asociacion ELA Argentina), first and only charity exclusively focused on ALS in the country. He was one of the Association’s co-founders in November 2011, and has been assisting in the management of projects along with President Dario Ryba and the rest of the board, and developing the international relations of this institution since then. He was the coordinator and personal interpreter of international visits in Argentina, such as Drs. Lucie Bruijn, Jonathan Glass, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Hiide Yoshino and Angela Genge. Pablo has been the speaker for Asociacion ELA Argentina in every Annual Meeting of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations since 2013, and also participated in the constitution of UNELA, the Latin American Union of ALS/MND Associations.Nina Barakzai
Nina Barakzai is immediate Past Chair of the UK’s Commerce & Industry Group, representing UK in-house counsel. She is Group Head of Data Protection & Privacy for the Sky group of companies, handling all aspects of privacy and data governance. She is Vice President of In-House Counsel Worldwide; sits on the Advisory Board of the Future of Privacy Forum; served as Board Member on the International Federation of Accountants’ International Ethics Standards Board and sits on the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants’ Research Advisory Group, chairing the call for research papers on Big Data. Her professional experience is in compliance, business ethics, privacy, corporate transactions, cloud services, cybersecurity and social media. She is an accountant and solicitor and serves as Trustee for two community charities.
Sheila Erickson
Sheila has operated SME Interim, providing interim management services in the not-for-profit sector since 2014. Sheila started SME Interim after 15 years of working in a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including a national professional association, community based social service agency, animal welfare shelter and a national charity. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a degree in Economics from McMaster University.
Sheila is passionate about the importance of helping out wherever needed, and has volunteered on both the governance and programming level over the years. As a new member to the Budget and Finance Committee, she’s inspired by the collaborative nature at the International Alliance of ALS/MND Association and looking forward to contributing her financial expertise.
In her spare time Sheila loves spending time outdoors, either at her cottage or travelling abroad on a walking holiday. “It’s truly the best way to experience a new destination”.
Evy Reviers
Evy Reviers is the daughter of a person who passed away from ALS/MND. As Chief Executive Officer since 2007 and Chairwoman since 2021 of ALS Liga Belgium, Evy performs the general management of the organization and stand up for the voice of people living with ALS/MND in Belgium, Europe and on the international scale.
In Belgium, she has obtained several priority procedures to increase the quality of life of people with ALS/MND. At the European level, she is the Chairwoman of the European Organisation for Professionals and People with ALS (EUpALS), and defends the rights of people living with ALS/MND in scientific advice procedures at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). She is also a member of TRICALS, Project MinE, the Rare Diseases Organisation Belgium, patient representative at EMA, and EURORDIS. She has also served for several terms as a member of the Board of the Alliance.
Gethin Thomas, PhD
Gethin Thomas has been the Executive Director, Research at MND Australia since 2019. He oversees the research grant program and manages national and international partnerships. He has over 20 years of experience as a biomedical researcher, having published widely and secured almost $4M in research funding. He has extensive review experience across a wide range of journals as well as reviewing grants for Australian and International funding bodies. Over the last 10 years as a senior research manager, he has directed a University Research Office and served as an Associate Dean of Research. He has a deep understanding of research strategy and the research funding system from the grant preparation, application and review process through to management of funded projects at both the researcher and institutional level.
Yohei Yamada
Yohei Yamada was born in Hokkaido, Japan, but as his parents were teachers, he moved around Hokkaido with his family. In 1993, Yohei attended high school in Idaho, USA. In 1998, Yohei attended Idaho State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in psychology. Yohei returned to Japan in 2003 and worked for a company that imported bovine genetics, primarily from North America. Yohei was a translator, negotiator, analyst, and business consultant who travelled around the globe for the dairy industry.
Symptoms of ALS/MND appeared, around the summer of 2013. Yohei was diagnosed with ALS/MND in October 2014, a week after his youngest daughter was born. He announced the diagnosis of ALS/MND to his friends on Facebook New Year’s Eve of 2014. A Japanese dairy farmer started the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness of ALS/MND for Yohei on the New Year of 2015. This movement spread throughout the dairy industry worldwide.
Yohei retired from the dairy industry in February 2016 and had a tracheotomy in July 2016. In August 2018, an American company and the worldwide leader in Bovine Genetics called American Breeders Service (ABS) Global named a bull after Yohei and has donated every unit sold to ALS/MND researchers. The holstein bull, YOHEI, ranked as the #1 bull in Canada in April 2023.
In May 2019, Yohei established a company to send specially trained caregivers to ALS/MND fighters. Yohei was appointed as a Director of Japan ALS Association in April 2022, joined the Board of Directors of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations in November 2022, and a Branch Manager of Japan ALS Association Hokkaido Branch in June 2023.
Yohei lives with his wife and three children (two girls and one boy).