Four distinguished alumni join Lawrence University’s Board of Trustees

Lawrence University has welcomed four alumni as new members of the Board of Trustees.

The new trustees include Joseph Y. Ahmad ’84, Rick Moser ’83, Abir Sen ’97, and David R. Shepard ’85. All four are term trustees serving three-year terms and eligible for re-election for four consecutive terms.

Joseph Y. Ahmad ’84

Ahmad is a founding partner at the Houston law firm Ahmad, Zavitsanos, & Mensing, a litigation firm with an emphasis in business and intellectual property litigation. The firm handles litigation for multinational corporations as well as mid-sized businesses and represents individuals. Ahmad is a litigation attorney in labor and employment law. He represents executives in cases involving breach of contract, trade secrets, covenants not to compete, breach of fiduciary duty, and other areas.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Lawrence in economics in 1984 and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1987. As a student, Ahmad was a member of the Lawrence University Community Council, cross country and track teams, and Delta Tau Delta. He served on the committee for his 35th reunion. He was a member of the President’s Advisory Council and currently co-chairs the Mind the Gap (scholarship fundraising) Committee.

Rick Moser ’83

Moser built his career in journalism and communications on the foundation of his English degree from Lawrence and his work on The Lawrentian. He is currently divisional vice president in corporate communications at Abbott, a global healthcare manufacturer headquartered near Chicago, which he joined in 1992 after earning his MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Moser has served on the boards of The AIDS Foundation of Chicago, The Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, and is a trustee of the Village of Old Mill Creek, Illinois. At Lawrence, he previously served on the President’s Advisory Council.

Moser and his wife, Lisa Miller Moser (’84), met at Lawrence, and two of their three children are Lawrence alums (classes of ‘11 and ‘14).

Abir Sen ’97 

Sen returns to the Board of Trustees after serving from 2013 to 2021. He is co-founder, chairman, and CEO at Gravie, an innovative health benefits company. Prior to founding Gravie, Abir was co-founder and CEO of Bloom Health, where he led the team that pioneered the private exchange model of financing health benefits. Prior to founding Bloom Health, he was co-founder and president of RedBrick Health. Under his leadership, RedBrick Health launched an industry-leading health earnings system and created innovative products. Before founding RedBrick Health, he co-founded Definity Health, where he was involved in the creation of the personal care account, the predecessor to the health savings account.

Sen began his career at Deloitte Consulting, where he advised managed care organizations and integrated delivery systems on mergers, acquisitions, and turnaround strategies. He has also worked as an advisor to Fidelity Investment’s health and welfare departments.

Sen earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Lawrence and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He’s on the board of directors at Allina Health, and he’s a member of several other boards, including the Animal Humane Society and The Compassion Museum.

David R. Shepard ’85

Shepard is chief operating officer and board member of Marki Microwave, a RF semiconductor and component company. He has been in the semiconductor industry for his entire 37-year career, holding executive leadership positions for more than 20 of those years. After almost 20 years at Texas Instruments, he went on to be president and CEO of Sequoia Communications, a startup developing RF transceivers for mobile handsets. He then held positions at Peregrine Semiconductor and Integrated Device Technology. He joined Marki Microwave as COO in 2019.

Prior to joining Lawrence’s Board of Trustees, Shepard served on the President’s Advisory Council for more than six years, including more than four years as co-chair. 

An Appleton native, Shepard received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Lawrence before earning his MS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He transferred to Lawrence from Middlebury College at the beginning of his junior year. He is board president of a non-profit organization that rehabilitates injured wildlife and educates K-12 students on wildlife conservation. He also serves on the board of several tech startups.

Learn more about Lawrence's Board of Trustees here