NWI Industrial Advisory Board Names Stefan Engel and John McNabb to Executive Committee

Stefan Engel, Chief Executive Officer of American Truetzschler Inc. and John McNabb, Chief Technical Officer, Freudenberg Performance Materials, were elected as members of the Executive Committee of The Nonwovens Institute (NWI) following the Institute’s Spring Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting. Stefan and John will be replacing Raoul Farer, Ph.D., and Lothar Kaierle, whose terms on the Executive Committee expired this year. NWI wishes to express its appreciation to all four for their contributions to the nonwovens industry and to the Institute.

Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Mr. Engel brings a broad international perspective to the Executive Committee. Mr. Engel spent his formative years in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Porto, Portugal, then graduated with a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. Engel started his professional career as a sales manager responsible for South and Central America with the Swiss-based foundry equipment company Georg Fischer Disa, and later served for 10 years as Chief Officer of Operations at Sia Abrasives in Switzerland, Great Britain, and the USA. In 2010, he joined American Truetzschler, Inc., located in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, and was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in 2017. 

Mr. Engel is a member of the German American Chamber of Commerce, the Southern Textile Association (STA) and the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). He is also a longtime director of the board at the German Language and Culture Foundation and serves as a member of the Advisory Board of The North Carolina Zeitgeist Foundation, which seeks to support economic development and growth in the state, including initiatives to brand and promote Charlotte as a premier U.S. location for international business, trade and investment.

Mr. McNabb received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987 and master’s degree in Management Science in 1992; both from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, in Lowell, Mass., USA. He also earned an MBA from Regis University, Denver Colorado, USA in 2002.  

Mr. McNabb joined Freudenberg Performance Materials (FPM) in 1993 as production manager at FPM in Lowell. He then spent three years at Freudenberg Performance Materials in Weinheim, Germany, as process engineer and production manager. In January 1998, he returned to the U.S. as operations manager for FPM’s plant in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, USA. In 2004, he moved to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, USA, and has since held various positions of increasing responsibility before being appointed to the Management Board of FPM as Chief Operations Officer in January 2018 and as Chief Technology Officer later in that year.   

In his current role, Mr. McNabb has responsibility for overseeing all Health, Safety and Environment, Innovation, Operations and Digitalization activities, including strategy and execution in these areas across the company. 

The IAB and its Executive Committee provides membership oversight, program review and policy guidance to the Institute. Members of the Executive Committee are each elected to two-year terms by the full membership of the IAB. The willingness of Mr. Engel, Mr. McNabb to provide the time, energy and “sweat equity” in support of the Institute attests to the value these outstanding technical and business leaders and their companies find in NWI membership. 

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Based at the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University, NWI is a consortium of stakeholders spanning the breadth of the nonwovens value chain. Operating on an “Open Innovation” platform and covering the full Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range, NWI engages industry, government and academia to enable next-generation nonwoven solutions to mission-critical challenges.