About the Honorees

Diane Abbey is Founder of the Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families at New York Law School. The Center was conceived with two goals in mind. The first is to prepare students for the practice of family law; this includes all aspects of law regarding family and children; their needs, and their rights. The second is to assist children and families in need in a variety of pro bono settings.

Mrs. Abbey worked as an English and English as Second Language teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx. After leaving teaching to raise two children of her own, Mrs. Abbey continued to work to better the lives of other children and families. As an educator for Planned Parenthood she spoke at schools, substance abuse centers and after school programs. She served on the Capital Campaign committee for New Alternatives for Children, an organization that provides a range of social services for disabled children and their families. At NAC she has served on the benefit committee and has been co-chair of several annual benefits.She was instrumental in establishing the volunteer corps for the agency. That program has expanded into tutoring, after school and summer programs for the children and is now 300 volunteers strong.

Diane has served on numerous boards including that of the Brotherhood Synagogue where she was actively involved in the campaign to totally renovate and restore the 1859 Friends Meeting House which now houses the Synagogue. She has served as a volunteer with the Brotherhood Synagogue Services in which she was a provider in the Synagogue's shelter program for the homeless.

Mrs. Abbey is married to Arthur Abbey who is chairman of the board of trustees of New York Law School. They have two children, Leslie and Jonathan and she is the devoted grandmother of Graham and Hannah Dietz.

 

Bruce A. Colbath ’85 is a partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP. A partner in the Firm's Litigation group, Mr. Colbath specializes in all aspects of antitrust law, advertising and related consumer class-action litigation. He has had extensive experience in all phases of such litigation, including national coordination of cases, trial, and appellate work. Mr. Colbath has defended a number of major U.S. and foreign corporations in actions brought in federal and state courts, in a wide variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, automobile distribution, semiconductors, apparel, consumer financial services, and cosmetics. He has also represented and counseled clients on a wide variety of advertising issues, including several major state and federal investigations concerning advertising practices and consumer protection issues.

Mr. Colbath actively participates in various bar activities. He is active in the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, where he has held leadership in several committees and, most recently served as an editor of one of the Section's leading treatises, Consumer Protection Law Developments, and drafted the chapter on private advertising litigation under the Lanham Act. Mr. Colbath is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association and is a member of the Consumer Affairs Committee of the Association of the Bar of New York City.

Mr. Colbath received an A.B. degree from Georgetown University. He obtained his J.D. from New York Law School, where he served as editor of the Human Rights Law Journal.

 

Steven M. Klosk '87 was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Cambrex Corporation in May 2008. Cambrex is a NYSE listed life sciences company with revenues of approximately $240 million, which provides products and services to support the development and manufacturing of small molecule therapeutics for the pharmaceutical industry. Cambrex employs approximately 850 employees, with manufacturing and R&D facilities in the USA, Estonia, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

Prior to his appointment as CEO, Mr. Klosk served as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, President of the Biopharma & Pharma Business Units and Executive Vice President, Administration since joining the company in 1992. In these roles he participated in the acquisition of 8 businesses with expertise in chemistry, biologics and cell therapy; building the business to $500M in revenues. In 2007,Cambrex sold its biologics business for $460 million and now focuses solely on chemistry and biocatalysis technology platforms.
Prior to joining Cambrex, Mr. Klosk served as Executive Vice President, Administration of The Genlyte Group, Inc., a global lighting manufacturer. He was part of the senior management team that led to the successful public spinoff of Genlyte and subsequent listing of the company on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Genlyte had over 2,000 employees in 9 global operations.

Mr. Klosk graduated with a BS in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University in 1979. In 2009, he was named one of the top 30 alumni in the class of 1979 by his Cornell University peers. He serves on the Cornell University Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board and has presented to students in the Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program and addressed a class in the Cornell Entrepreneurship & Life Sciences program. He earned a JD from New York Law School’s evening division in 1987. He served as a staff editor of the Law Review. Mr. Klosk has presented to NYLS students in the alumni spotlight programs.

In addition to his role on the Cambrex Board of Directors, Mr. Klosk serves on the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation Board and is a member of the Board of Directors of NPS, a privately held packaging company.

Mr. Klosk has been married to his wife, Rena Fox Klosk, whom he met at Cornell University, for 30 years. They have 3 children: Joshua, Melissa and Julia, who are 24, 20 and 17 years old respectively.