Timothy Coetzee MD, PhD

Dr. Timothy Coetzee is Named Chief Research Officer by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Dr. Coetzee has been engaged in the MS movement his entire career. Most recently, he served as President of Fast Forward, an initiative launched by the National MS Society to focus on speeding the commercial development of new MS treatments. Dr. Coetzee was instrumental in the founding and establishment of Fast Forward.

"Dr. Coetzee's experience across all disciplines in MS, from basic research to speeding business development of new therapies for people with MS, makes him the right person at the right time to move us closer to a world free of MS," says Joyce Nelson, president, and CEO, National MS Society.

Dr. Coetzee received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Albany Medical College in Albany, NY in 1993. He subsequently joined the laboratory of National MS Society grantee, Dr. Brian Popko, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1995, Dr. Coetzee received the National MS Society's Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his research on the structure and function of myelin. In 1999, Dr. Coetzee was appointed to the faculty of the University of Connecticut Health Center serving as an instructor in the Departments of Microbiology and Neuroscience.

Dr. Coetzee joined the National MS Society's Research Department in 2000 as the Director of Research Training Programs. Subsequently, he held the positions of Director of Research Initiatives and Outreach, Associate Vice President of Research Initiatives and Outreach, and Vice President of Discovery Partnerships where he assumed responsibility for the development, launch, and establishment of Fast Forward in 2006.

Under Dr. Coetzee's leadership, the Society created its Career Transition Fellowship, the first transition award for postdoctoral fellows to be established by a patient advocacy organization, and the MS Clinician Scientist Development Award, a joint venture award between the National MS Society and the American Academy of Neurology to recruit young physician-scientists to MS clinical research.

Dr. Coetzee was also a leader in establishing the Translational Research Partnerships in Nervous System Repair and Protection in MS Program, a five-year, $15 million commitment to fund four large collaborative research teams focused on developing tools and strategies to promote nervous system repair and protection in MS. This program became the cornerstone of the Society's $32 million Promise: 2010 campaign and Dr. Coetzee was a major force in raising funds for the accomplishment of those efforts.

As President of Fast Forward, Dr. Coetzee implemented a proposal solicitation and review process resulting in the evaluation of more than 100 investment opportunities with a total value exceeding $45 million over the first three years of Fast Forward operations. He oversaw the deployment of $3.5 million in funding to support 11 commercial therapeutic development programs and provided leadership in securing $9 million in philanthropic contributions from individuals and private foundations toward the Fast Forward fundraising campaign. In addition, he was central to the negotiation of a five-year, $19 million collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, the parent company of EMD Serono as well as first-of-their-kind partnerships to co-fund therapeutic development programs with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Italian MS Society

"Dr. Coetzee's experience and expertise in both academic and commercial research will ensure the Society can aggressively pursue all promising paths for treating MS and deliver results to people affected by this terrible disease," said Dr. Aaron Miller, Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Coetzee will assume responsibility for the Society's research program, which funds more than 375 projects around the world. In this role, he will continue oversight of the Fast Forward initiative.