John Urbahns, President / CEO John Urbahns joined GFW Inc. in 2014. Prior to his appointment as CEO in 2019, he served as executive VP of economic development. In that role, he led an economic development team that assisted with 132 business expansions and relocations in Allen County, resulting in more than 7,800 new jobs and $335 million in new annual payroll. John has managed and negotiated aspects of transformational downtown investments including The Landing, Electric Works, and Provenance Hotels’ boutique hotel (breaking ground in 2019). He co-led the Road to One Million (regional cities initiative) plan which resulted in a $42-million award from the State of Indiana for quality-of-place improvement projects throughout the region. Under his leadership, the GFW Inc. team has provided counsel to community leaders throughout northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio, coaching them on setting a community vision, historic preservation, real-estate finance, and private-sector investment strategies. Prior to joining GFW Inc., John served as the director of community development for the City of Fort Wayne, where he managed the City’s strategic planning, land use, redevelopment, housing, economic development, and neighborhoods services operations and an 80+ member team dedicated to excellence in public service. He led and assisted with high-profile projects at the direction of the mayor including Harrison Square, the Legacy Fund, Ash Skyline Plaza, and others. John has facilitated comprehensive, downtown, and neighborhood planning processes. He has spent much of his career engaging with local residents, neighborhood groups, elected officials, and business leaders to cast a visionary future for Allen County’s communities. Over the course of his career, John has served on numerous community boards. He was a founding board member of the Fort Wayne Downtown Development Trust, the Fort Wayne New Markets Revitalization Fund, and Fort4Fitness. John graduated from Ball State University with degrees in urban planning and environmental design and is an AICP-certified urban planner.

Adam D. Thies, AICP, was appointed Assistant Vice President for Capital Planning at Indiana University in August 2015. In this role, Thies advises the Vice President for Capital Planning and Facilities on matters of University Master Planning for all IU campuses, including Indiana University Bloomington, IUPUI, and all of IU’s Regional campus locations. Additionally, Thies oversees efforts to utilize university building space in ways consistent with the mission and objectives of the University. Prior to coming to Indiana University, Thies was Director of the Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) for the City of Indianapolis where he managed a professional staff of 75 city planners, redevelopment officials, transportation planners and design review/zoning professionals with an annual department budget of $32.3 million dollars. In this role, he served as the executive leader of the City’s Community Development division, Planning and Zoning division, Historic Preservation division, Redevelopment Authority and Brownfields Program. Additionally, he served as the administrative leader of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), authorized all Tax Abatement Compliance, directed the City’s New Markets Tax Credit Program and served as a Cabinet Member to the Mayor on Economic Development Projects and Strategy. Before working for the City of Indianapolis, Thies was the founder and president of EDEN Collaborative, a boutique real estate, landscape architecture, and city planning consulting firm. While at EDEN, he created the City of Indianapolis and Central Indiana’s first Transit-Oriented Development Strategic Plan to leverage an anticipated $1.2 billion dollar investment in transit in the next 20 years through the Indy Connect transportation initiative. Additionally, he led and managed many of Indiana’s premiere planning and design projects including planning for the 2012 Super Bowl Legacy Neighborhood Project, the redesign of Indianapolis’ Monument Circle, and the creation of a plan for Midtown Indianapolis. He was named one of 40 under 40 by the Indianapolis Business Journal in 2009, has been named Ball State University’s Graduate of the Last Decade, and was named Ball State’s College of Architecture and Planning’s Outstanding Alumni in 2013.