On Tuesday, October 17, at 7:00 PM, Head of School Adrianne Finley Odell will host the next webinar in the MA Community Education Series titled "K-12 to College to Career: What Skills Do Our Students Need to Thrive in Our Rapidly Changing World?"

Ms. Finley Odell will serve as moderator to a panel that includes college presidents and provosts and CEOs. This virtual event is free and open to our entire community. 

Meet the Panelists

Nacho Abia P'27, '31 is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Olympus Corporation of the Americas and concurrently he serves as Executive Officer and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Olympus Corporation, a publicly traded company in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Through its more than 40.000 employees, Olympus produces a variety of medical technology products and solutions that span across multiple medical specialties as the global leader for minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment.

Nacho has spent half of his more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in the United States, where he moved in 2011 and the other half in Europe--where he is originally from-- while currently also spending significant amount of time developing the business in the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition to his Olympus responsibilities, Nacho serves on the Board of Directors of AdvaMed (Advanced Medical Technology Association), on the Board of Directors of the US-Spain Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Board of Directors of Evident Corporation, a company in the life sciences and industrial field.

He holds dual Master’s Degrees: one in Telecommunications and Electronic Engineering, and another in Business Administration.

Originally from Barcelona (Spain), Nacho holds dual citizenship in US and Spain, and is married with two children. He lives in Bethlehem, PA.

In his personal time, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing tennis, hiking, running, and cycling. He firmly believes in the motto, “Be persistent. Never give up and fight for what you believe is right.”

Marie Ffolkes-Gierszewski P'31 is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Axxelist LLC, a technology real estate company, where she leads the company in executing its mission and strategy.   She recently served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of TriMark USA, LLC, a $2.1B private equity company, which provides design services, equipment, and supplies to the food services industry.  She serves on the Boards of two publicly traded companies - Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO ~$176B) and Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS ~$8.4B), and one private equity company Colson Group Holdings, LLC.  She chairs the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee and serves on the Compensation Committee, the Sustainability Committee and has served on the Audit Committee for 4+ years.  

Previously, Marie spent five years as President Americas, Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD $12.7B) where she was responsible for the largest and most profitable P&L ($4B) growing EBITDA by +1700bps.  She rose through roles in P&L, operations, pricing, and finance holding executive and senior management positions at Tenneco (4+ yrs), Johnson Controls International plc (~9 yrs), and GE Healthcare / GE Capital (8.5 yrs).  Marie has global and cultural experiences through working and living in China, South Korea, Brazil, Japan, Europe and the U.S.

Ms. Ffolkes has extensive experience in building, scaling and driving revenue and profit growth as well as restructuring in multi-billion operations and international markets across engineering, production and operations in various sectors such as energy, industrial gases, automotive, electronics, power solutions, and JIT manufacturing.  

She earned an MBA from Columbia Business School with distinction and a B.S. from City University of New York, graduating magna cum laude.  She graduated GE’s Financial Management Program and is a certified Master Black Belt.

Ms. Ffolkes is recognized by Fortune Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, WomenInc. and Savoy Magazines as one of the Most Powerful Women in Corporate America and as one of the Most Powerful Board Members in Fortune 500 for the past 5 years.  

• Financial, M&A, Carve-Out and Strategy
  Led and grew global P&L 17+ years through organic and acquisitions
• Profitable Growth, Commercial, Customer Leadership 
  Organic growth of sales teams and marketing programs to increase top line 
• Operations and Supply Chain 
  Deep expertise in operations, procurement, and systems
• Industrial, Manufacturing and Distribution
  Built teams and facilities and grew to scale exceeding customer expectations
• Cyber, ERP, Data and Emerging Technologies     
  Enterprise cybersecurity preparedness and managing technology risk
• Reputational, Ethics, Integrity and ESG Matters

Provost Dr. Laura Lowe Furge oversees the academic programs and support at Muhlenberg College. A biochemist by training, Furge attended Oberlin College as an undergraduate and received her PhD from Vanderbilt University. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate Stanley Cohen, Furge took an academic position at Kalamazoo College, MI, where she was a member of the faculty for 23 years, teaching chemistry and biochemistry while also leading an active research program focusing on human metabolism of pharmaceutical drugs that was funded continuously by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. As a mentor and scientist, Furge trained over 40 research assistants to excel in a variety of careers and was committed in particular to lifting and supporting students from diverse backgrounds. Given her teaching and research areas, she also has written hundreds of letters of recommendation for undergraduates applying to medical school and graduate programs. After serving as associate provost and interim provost, Furge moved to Muhlenberg in 2021 to lead the academic programs during a time of change and transition out of the emergency phase of the pandemic and to prepare for Generation Alpha. She is married with two adult children, both currently undergraduates. 

Bryon Grigsby, Ph.D. is President of Moravian University, Moravian Theological Seminary, and Lancaster Theological Seminary. He was inaugurated President July 2013. Among the important projects he has initiated as President are developing the academic programs of the university, upgrading facilities, enhancing the technological structure of the campus, and creating a strategic plan for the university. One of President Grigsby’s first initiatives was to issue Mac laptops and iPads to incoming students. He has lead important initiatives to advance the qualities of learning, academic programs, campus communities, and enhanced technology. 

Grigsby has become increasingly involved in the community surrounding Moravian University. He was a board member of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation and is a member of the Bethlehem Rotary Club, and Lehigh Valley Partnership. Moravian has been  named a Top Workplace in the Lehigh Valley for years by The Morning Call. In addition, President Grigsby received the Leadership Award for large employers.

Grigsby received a B.A. from Moravian College, an M.A. from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago, specializing in medieval literature, early modern literature, and the history of medicine. In April 2022, Grigsby was named by Lehigh Valley Business as one of the Power 30 for Higher Education.

Dr. Nathan Urban P'22 is the Chief Academic Officer at Lehigh University overseeing all educational and research activities. academic programs. Since joining Lehigh in 2020, Urban has emphasized expansion of Lehigh's research activity and support for innovation and entrepreneurship. During his leadership of Lehigh's strategic planning efforts, he has promoted a focus on experiential learning and ensuring outstanding outcomes for all Lehigh students. Urban came to Lehigh from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), where he served as Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and as Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute. He also served as Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Strategic Initiatives. Prior to joining Pitt, Urban was a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University where he was the Frederick Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences, Head of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Interim Provost during 2014-2015.

Urban graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991 with majors in Neuroscience and Mathematics and Philosophy. Following graduation, he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar before returning to the University of Pittsburgh to earn his Ph.D. in Neuroscience with the support of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship. After serving as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, Urban joined Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Biological Sciences in 2002. Urban’s scientific work continues to focus on experimental and computational analysis of sensory processing by neural circuits in the mouse brain, with a focus on the sense of smell. His work has been funded by NIH, NSF, DARPA, AFOSR, the Simons Foundation, the Commonwealth of PA, and the Human Frontiers Science Program.