Abi serves as the Executive Director of the Maryland Innovation Initiative, where he supports the commercialization of new technologies from Maryland’s universities and research institutions. Abi’s expertise lies at the intersection of scientific innovation, economic development, and entrepreneurship, and he has worked across the U.S. advancing regional economic competitiveness through research and development. Prior, Abi served as Chief Business Officer at Southern Research, where he launched the organization’s Station 41 biotechnology commercialization programs and led collaborative federal and state grant opportunities, including the Build Back Better and Regional Tech Hubs programs. Abi additionally worked at McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, advising state & local governments on economic development and biopharmaceutical companies on R&D operations. Abi earned a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in Theoretical Physics studying the thermodynamics of quantum systems.