Augustine L. Nieto II (1958 – February 22, 2023) was the founder and chief executive of

Life Fitness Life Fitness is an American fitness company specializing in the production and distribution of cardiovascular and strength training equipment under several brands including Life Fitness, Cybex and Hammer Strength. It is headquartered in Franklin ...

, as well as the chairman of Augie's Quest to Cure ALS, and the ALS Therapy Development Institute. He and his wife, Lynne, lived in

Corona Del Mar, California Corona del Mar (Spanish for "Crown of the Sea") is a seaside neighborhood in the city of Newport Beach, California. It generally consists of all the land on the seaward face of the San Joaquin Hills south of Avocado Avenue to the city limits, as ...

, and had four children and eight grandchildren. He was diagnosed with

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS) disease in 2005, and established "Augie's Quest to Cure ALS", which has raised over $75 million in funds for research into the disease. A documentary titled, "Augie" was released in 2017.

Career

In 1977, Nieto founded Lifecycle with an exercise bike of the same name. In 1984, he sold the company to

Bally Total Fitness Bally Total Fitness Holding Corporation was an American fitness club chain. At its 2007 peak, prior to the filing of the first of two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, Bally operated nearly 440 facilities located in 29 U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, South K ...

, but was soon named president of the combined company, Life Fitness. He left as an executive of the company upon its acquisition by the

Brunswick Corporation Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...

. In 2001, Nieto became an Operating Advisor for North Castle Partners, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm. As part of his position, he served on the boards of

Curves International Curves International, also known as Curves for Women, Curves Fitness, or just Curves, is an international fitness franchise co-founded by Gary and Diane Heavin in 1992. As of May 31, 2019, Curves lists 367 franchise locations open in the United S ...

Jenny Craig Jenny Craig, Inc., often known simply as Jenny Craig, is an American weight loss, weight management, and nutrition company. The company has more than 700 weight management centers in Australia, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. The pro ...

, and HydroMassage, all North Castle investments. Additionally, he was a former board member of Octane Fitness,

Quest Software Quest Software, also known as Quest, is a privately held software company headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, United States. Quest provides cloud management, software as a service, security, workforce mobility, and backup & recovery. The c ...

and

DynaVox Tobii Dynavox is a SE-based developer, manufacturer, and distributor of speech generating devices headquartered in Danderyd, Sweden with offices in Pittsburgh, Norway, Germany, France, the UK, China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The company ...

. As a board member of

, he was part of a committee that helped to negotiate the sale of the company to

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

in 2012.

Augie's Quest

In March 2005, Nieto was diagnosed with

, more commonly known as

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

. After diagnosis, he partnered with the

Muscular Dystrophy Association The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American 501(c)(3) umbrella organization that works to support people with neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived with muscular dystrophy, it works to combat neuromuscular di ...

(MDA) and created "Augie's Quest" with the sole purpose of finding a cure for ALS. Funds he raised went completely to research, as administrative costs were covered by MDA. In 2014, Augie's Quest officially transitioned from MDA to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

and in 2018, Augie's Quest to Cure ALS became a stand-alone non-profit. Since 2006, Augie's Quest and ALS TDI have raised over $150 million for research under Augie's leadership.

Five for Fighting song

In 2009, John Ondrasik of

Five for Fighting Vladimir John Ondrasik III (born January 7, 1965), also known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for his piano-based soft rock ballads, such as the top 40 hits "Superman (It's Not ...

wrote a song in Nieto's honor on his album Slice to help raise awareness and funds for Augie's Quest.

Awards

Nieto received the EY Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award for the Orange County Region in 2007. In 2008, he was given the President's Award by the

National Association of Hispanic Journalists The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic and Latino journalists in the United States and Puerto Rico. It was established in 1984. NAHJ has approxima ...

(NAHJ). Then NAHJ President Rafael Olmedia cited Nieto as someone who put a "Latino face on an American story." In September 2015, he received the fitness industry's top honor, the Club Industry Lifetime Achievement Award.

References

Bibliography

* ''Reciprocity, Incorporated''. Infinity Publishing. 2010. . * ''Augie's Quest: One Man's Journey from Success to Significance''. Bloomsbury. 2007. .

External links

Augie's Quest

ALS Therapy Development Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieto, Augie 1958 births 2023 deaths American health activists American people with disabilities People with motor neuron disease Hispanic and Latino American people