About our Board of Directors

Gary Salmirs, President and Founder
Gary resides in Northern, NJ with his wife, Maureen, and their three young children. Gary founded the Ironwill Foundation, for a way to help others through his love of athletics. In the past year, Gary has completed the New York Marathon, and multiple triathlons. His goal is to raise money and awareness to those in need.

Eric Aroesty, Board Member
Mr. Aroesty most recently served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Direct, LLC, the leading Internet based company serving students and college graduates nationwide as a leading and trusted financial services provider that originated over $5,500,000,000 of federal student loans. Mr. Aroesty focuses his time on projects that leverage his Internet marketing acumen as well as on new for-profit initiatives in the environmental sector. In addition to these efforts, he founded, with his son, the non-profit entity JuniorEnergy.org in 2007 to focus on educating and empowering young people to act on environmental matters. Mr. Aroesty holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Friedman, Board Member
Robert S. Friedman is a litigation partner at the New York office of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Children's Victory Project which helps children affected by violent crime and the need for both short and long-term assistance.

Rebecca Pennino, Executive Director
Rebecca has been working with Gary for over three years, and has been concentrating on Iron Will since its incorporation. She is dedicated to raising funds and empowering individuals in need.

Spin-a-thon for a Cure!

Letter from Rebecca Pennino: Executive Director of Iron Will Foundation

Hi Everyone,

I couldn't think of a better way to start this blog than discussing out first fundraising event, HNF/IronWill Spin-a-thon, and I am proud to say it was a success. We raised over $73,000 to help find a cure. We chose tp wprk closley with Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation (HNF) which was founded by a dear friend to Gary, Allison Moore. HNF has made it their mission to find a cure for CMT. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is a hereditary motor-sensory neuropathy (HMSN). HMSNs are a group of progressive neurological disorders that affect the motor and sensory units of the peripheral nervous system. CMT causes weakness because the nerve signals are impaired (demyelinated) before they reach the muscle. Over time this causes atrophy in various areas of the body. Although considered a "family disease", people are commonly affected differently. To date there is no known cure or treatment to arrest levels or rates of progression.
I was witness to Gary Salmirs, not leaving his bike for the entire event, which lasted 6 hours. He actually persuaded others to do the same. In the end, over 5 people rode for 6 hours straight to raise money for Hereditary Neuropathy. The day of the event I met many children and adults who are suffering from this disease. It was amazing to see them get on a bike, and though extremely painful, spin for as long as they could. To find out more about this disease, please click on this link http://www.hnf-cure.org.