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Kenneth Aidekman
Director
Ken Aidekman is Vice President and co-founder of Highview Capital Corporation, an investment advisory firm located in Chatham, NJ. Prior to his work with Highview, he co-founded and operated Amio, Inc., a designer jewelry firm specializing in karat gold and precious stone earrings.
Aidekman developed a keen interest in neuroscience and the biological basis of behavior as an undergraduate at Tufts University. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in 1975.
Also in 1975, Alex Aidekman, Ken’s father, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Alex Aidekman was acutely aware of what the future held in store because his own father has suffered with Parkinson’s disease before there was any known treatment.
Ken assumed the role of scientific liaison for his family’s philanthropic endeavors relating to Parkinson’s disease. The family built the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutger’s Newark Campus and endowed a Chair in Parkinson’s Research at Mount Sinai Medical Center. In this capacity, he developed relationships with doctors, scientists and patients and became involved in advocacy for greater federal research funding.
In the summer of 1994, Ken traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in the first Parkinson’s Action Network advocacy forum. It was there that he met Margot Zobel, a software consultant and activist with Parkinson’s disease who was planning a fundraiser walk for New York City. Together they founded the Parkinson’s Unity Walk. Margot is the current President and Ken serves as its Chairman. Besides raising money exclusively for research, the Unity Walk is unique in that the money raised is passed on to all of the national Parkinson’s organizations. It is considered a model of co-operation in the diverse Parkinson’s community.
Ken Aidekman resides in Short Hills, NJ with his wife, Ellen, and children, Matthew and Andrea.
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