Our Nominees

Mr. Appelrouth has served as a member of the Board of Directors since August 2016. Mr. Appelrouth is a certified public accountant and partner at Appelrouth Farah & Co., P.A., Certified Public Accountants and Advisors. Mr. Appelrouth is also a certified forensic accountant and possesses 40 years of experience in Accounting and Consulting. Mr. Appelrouth is an advisor to a myriad of financial and operations companies in numerous industries providing solutions to their business problems. He is a member of or has affiliations with the AICPA, American College of Forensic Examiners, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Florida Bar Grievance Committee, Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and InfraGard Member, a national information sharing program between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector. Mr. Appelrouth graduated from Florida State University in 1975 and his Master's Degree in Finance from Florida International University in 1980.

Ms. Bryan is an established leader with more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. She has served on executive leadership teams and played key roles in companies’ successes, including marketing, sales, business development, financing and communications. Ms. Bryan is the former President and CEO of BioFlorida Inc. (retired in December 2023), an association supporting the advancement of life sciences in Florida. Prior to joining BioFlorida as its President and CEO in 2013, Ms. Bryan began her career with major pharmaceutical companies including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. She then went on to serve in a number of executive leadership positions in specialty pharmaceuticals and smaller, start-up biotech companies, including Indevus Pharmaceuticals and NPS Pharmaceuticals. Throughout her career, Ms. Bryan helped develop, launch and commercialize many products including blockbusters (Zantac, Levitra), major biologics (Tysabri) and orphan drugs for rare diseases (Valstar for bladder cancer, Supprelin LA for central precocious puberty), and helped establish franchises in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including Oncology, Anti-infectives, GI and Autoimmune (MS, CD). She has established a successful track record with introducing strategic and tactical solutions to develop global markets as well as launch, grow and turn around established and underperforming drugs, resulting in greater revenue, market share, profitability and stockholder value. Additionally, Ms. Bryan has been recognized for outstanding leadership experience in the specialty, biologics and primary care markets, establishing franchises in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including Oncology, GI, Urology, Endocrinology, Cardiology, Vaccines, Anti-infectives and Autoimmune(IBD, MS, RA). Ms. Bryan holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia University, and her academic honors include Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma.

Mr. Equels has been the Chief Executive Officer of AIM ImmunoTech Inc. since February 2016. Additionally, he has served as a Director on the company’s Board of Directors since 2008. Mr. Equels previously served as the Company’s Secretary from 2008 to 2016, its General Counsel from 2010 to 2016, and its Chief Financial Officer from December 2013 to February 2016. Mr. Equels was formerly the President and Managing Director of the Equels Law Firm in Miami, Fla. For over a quarter century, he represented national governments, state governments and private companies in banking, insurance, aviation, pharmaceutical and construction matters. He also was on numerous occasions the court-appointed receiver to turn around distressed companies. Mr. Equels received his Juris Doctor degree with high honors from Florida State University. He is a summa cum laude graduate with a Bachelor of Science from Troy University. He also has a Master of Science from Troy University. He is a member of the Florida Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Dr. Mitchell was appointed Chairman of the Board in February 2016 after serving as a Director since July 1998. Dr. Mitchell is a Professor of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is a board certified physician. Dr. Mitchell earned a M.D. from Vanderbilt and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, where he served as House Officer in Internal Medicine (Osler Service), followed by a Fellowship at its School of Medicine. Dr. Mitchell has published over 200 papers, reviews and abstracts that relate to the pathogenesis of obligate intracellular pathogens, innate and adaptive immune responses, and liquid biopsy cancer (chromosomal instability) diagnostics. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 14 issued US patents as well as derivative foreign patents. Dr. Mitchell has worked with many professional societies that have included the American Society of Investigative Pathology (ASIP), the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR), the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Mitchell is a member of the American Medical Association (AMA). He has served on numerous review committees for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the European Union (EU), and the College of American Pathology (CAP). He served as an independent director of Chronix Biomedical, a genetics based cancer diagnostic company, until acquired by OncoCyte (OCX) in 2021.