FROM THE NEST | FALL 2024 | 5 Tyler Groft ’13 director of the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation Michael “Mike” Rinkunas ’02 ’08G Lehigh Ventures Lab director audience and create opportunities for community members such as Lehigh faculty, staff and students. “I believe sometimes we tend to think about things that are global as not being relevant to what’s here in our own community, and we are reminded today that is absolutely not true,” Matherly said. “In this case, the Bethlehem story, and by extension the Lehigh story as part of that community, are part of a global story as well.” Lehigh has benefited from connections made through Bethlehem’s World Heritage efforts, Matherly said. In May 2023, a 45-person delegation from Germany visited Bethlehem to honor 300 years of Herrnhut in Saxony—the birthplace of the modern Moravian Church. Capping off the visit, Lehigh signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a partnership with the Technische Universität Dresden, creating opportunities for joint research and publications, and to facilitate academic and student exchanges. Lehigh also has another Saxony connection. Asa Packer, in the decade before he established Lehigh, had visited Saxony to study the mining and manufacturing techniques used there. He was impressed by what he saw in Saxony and believed many of the region’s manufacturing and engineering practices could be applied in the United States. When Packer established Lehigh, he encouraged a curriculum focused on engineering and science to train graduates who could lead economic growth and innovation in the Lehigh Valley. Bethlehem’s Road to the World Heritage List Moravian immigrants founded Bethlehem in 1741 when they purchased a 500-acre tract of land at the confluence of the Monocacy Creek and Lehigh River. The current-day Bethlehem settlement preserves some of the most important sites related to the Moravians in the New World and is significant as an outstanding example of Moravian architecture and town planning, according to Bethlehem officials. The site spans 10 acres in the heart of downtown Bethlehem. It includes nine structures, four ruins and God’s Acre cemetery, all within the already designated Historic Moravian Bethlehem National Historic Landmark District. The World Heritage designation is expected to significantly boost cultural tourism to Bethlehem, benefiting the local economy. The designation is the result of a decades-long undertaking, which began in 2002, that included Bethlehem area Moravians, Central Moravian Church, the City of Bethlehem, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites and Moravian University. —Christina Tatu Delegates from Moravian Church Settlements and other officials, including Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and former Lehigh University Trustee Richard R. Verma ’90, attend the Moravian Church Settlements World Heritage International Recognition of Inscription Ceremony at Moravian University on October 17. Previously the director of sales and visitor experience at the Da Vinci Science Center, Groft was named the new director of the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation in November 2023. He graduated from Lehigh with a Bachelor of Science Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts and Sciences (IDEAS) and received his master’s in organizational leadership from Arizona State University. He aims to encourage students to use design and entrepreneurial thinking while pursuing the institute’s tenets of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. In May, Rinkunas joined the Lehigh Ventures Lab as its new director. After earning his master’s in industrial engineering, Rinkunas began a diverse career in entrepreneurship. He founded several digital marketing firms before shifting to coaching and growing startup ventures. Rinkunas’ goal as the new director is to guide students as they build their ideas into new ventures and help them connect with financial partners. Outside of his business ventures, he is also a volunteer locomotive engineer at the Steamtown National Historic Site. Named The 1869 Luckenbach Mill functioned as a grist mill until the late 1940s and is part of Bethlehem’s Moravian Church Settlements, which was designated as the 26th World Heritage Site in the U.S. SCAN TO VIEW VIDEO OF BETHLEHEM’S HISTORIC MORAVIAN CHURCH SETTLEMENTS. Richard R. Verma ’90 PHOTO COURTESY OF MORAVIAN CHURCH SETTLEMENTS—BETHLEHEM
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