As he leads AdventHealth Orlando into an exciting new era, Abel Biri continues to raise money for the less fortunate through his favorite hobby.

Whether he is spearheading the largest single investment in health care in Central Florida history or walking an ancient network of pilgrimages in Europe, Abel Biri is not the type to go into any meaningful task at half speed. It was that exact mindset, in fact, that started him on the path to Orlando more than three decades ago.

Biri readily admits that he was not one of those people who experienced an epiphany that inspired him to pursue a career in health care. He simply needed a job upon graduating from college in 1994, and when a local health system in his native Michigan offered an internship, he jumped in with both feet and impressed his supervisors so much that it became a full-time role.

Within two years, a college buddy encouraged him to think about applying for a position at Florida Hospital, now known as AdventHealth. He interviewed, got the job, moved to Florida and has been part of the community ever since.

Last year, Biri was named CEO of AdventHealth Orlando after holding several leadership positions in the organization, including COO at AdventHealth Waterman for eight years.

“I’ve had really good bosses and mentors who have opened up opportunities and experiences for me, so here I sit today,” he says. “It’s gone by both fast and slow, and there’s been lots of learning and growing.”

Biri spoke to Orlando Family Magazine about his rise through the ranks, the ambitious expansion project to the campus, and his tiresome yet fulfilling favorite hobby.

This year marks your 30th with AdventHealth. What does this significant milestone mean to you?
It’s one of those things that when I say it, it hits harder than it feels. [I was recently] in Tallahassee for [FHA] Hospital Days, and invariably I had to introduce myself multiple times and the question would come up: ‘How long have you been with the organization?’ And I would go, ‘I’m starting my 30th year.’ So yeah, I’m that old guy now. [Laughs]

All these years later, what motivates you on a daily basis to deliver the best care possible to local residents?
Throughout it all, I’ve been very grateful and the reason I keep doing what I’m doing … is because there are very few things I can think of where you can relieve human suffering. I’m not a clinician and I don’t touch bodies, but I support people who do. That is incredibly gratifying.

You were named CEO of AdventHealth Orlando during an exciting time, not long after the announcement of the ambitious expansion plans for the campus. Why is this project so important to the future of health care in the area, and can you give us any updates on its progress?
AdventHealth continues to grow and expand, and what I would say is that I don’t ever want to talk about growth for the sake of growth or building for the sake of building. On the numbers purely, this is a huge economic driver for the community. It’s about a $680 million project, which I think is the largest single investment project in Central Florida in one particular entity—at least it is the largest investment by AdventHealth in a single building.

But as impressive as that is, this is really not about the building. Central Florida is seeing growth of roughly about a thousand individuals moving in every week, and I think the state averages about a thousand a day. … So for us, these investments are indicative of the recognition that if we are going to provide excellent and exceptional care, we need to keep up with the demand, not just of ever-changing medicine that is often resource-intensive [and] facility-intensive, but also the growth that is happening requires us to keep up with it. While what draws attention is the size and scale and expense of the project, at the heart of this is a patient: a family member, a child, an elderly parent, and any one of those could be one of mine. So that’s what I find exciting, and it’s phenomenal to be the guy who helps build it and bring it to life. While there is a personal/professional pride in it in a healthy way, at the end of the day what I’m most proud of is that this gets to make this community better and stronger.

Not that you were too far away at Waterman, but how has it been for you personally to return to Orlando after previously serving as COO here?
Fantastic. I live in Maitland so I never actually left the community; I just embedded myself very strongly in Lake County. It was only a 35-minute drive for me, and for my family, our support system has been here for many years, so I didn’t feel the need to unplug them from that. But coming back to Orlando as a campus and Central Florida as a division is incredibly exciting. … Having this role is just an incredible privilege and one that will mark my career as a highlight point. 

How do you like to unwind after a long day at work?
I am a walker. I love walking and I love listening to audio books, which has now gotten cut because of my drive time being significantly shorter. I try to compensate for that by walking more and listening [during my walks]. If you’ve heard of the Camino De Santiago Pilgrimage in Spain—it’s a 1,200-year-old route—every year I go and walk a section of it, and I just completed that after four years. In order to do that I train, and my training is walking. I get to that space when I walk where I just download and process. There is a quote somewhere that says, ‘You meet God at three miles an hour.’ That’s one of my favorite things, because at three miles an hour, between your feet and your brain, something locks together and there’s a seamlessness to just be present where you are.

My wife and I have adult sons now. One is in his third year of college and the other is a senior in high school but just turned 18. We’ll be empty nesters next year, so we’re going to have to find interesting things to do that don’t necessarily revolve around the kids’ schedule, so I’m looking forward to that. I need to resume my off-trail biking. I don’t do road bikes, I’m not a fan of that, but I do a lot of trail biking. I did that for several years, and over the last year because of the changes I’ve had, I haven’t kept up with it. That’s the other space I get to relax and get re-centered.

Do you have any favorite spots in the Orlando area: certain restaurants, entertainment destinations or parks, for example?
I’m a big Hillstone fan, and I have been for the last 30 years. I think the first time I went to Hillstone was in ’97, when the grilled chicken salad was $6.25. I thought that was a lot, and today it retails for $25, so there’s that. It’s a big change. Walking spots, I have several. The Black Bear Forest is one of my favorites, along with Cranes Roost and the Wekiva Trail as well. I’m a local boy and I love to do that. By the way, a hole-in-the-wall place that I frequent the most is Tako Ceena, right here off of Mills. That’s my place, and when my company is not as grungy as me, then I take them to Hillstone.

You are known to be an active supporter of various charitable causes. How did you get the idea to turn your walking excursions to Spain as fundraising events?
I was talking earlier about health care being a place to relieve human suffering, but I believe health care is the No. 1 cause for individual bankruptcy. While I felt powerless to bend the cost of health care, I did feel like for those who could not afford to be insured, what could I do? A few years ago, I dedicated the second walk I did to raising money for cancer care support for uninsured patients in Lake County. We set a goal of $15,000, and we beat that by day three, when I didn’t think we would reach it at all. Eight days later when I completed my walk, we had raised $41,000. So we thought, ‘There might be something to this.’

The following year we decided to raise money for the Community Health Clinic, operated by AdventHealth Waterman, that supports community folks with absolutely no insurance and provides free care for them. We set a goal of $100,000, which I panically accepted, but as God would have it, when all was said and done we raised $106,000. It is something I plan to get involved with here in Orlando, because now I have an even bigger platform. So over the next few months, I plan to work with community leaders, identify a cause that we can support and I can champion, and my desire is to then do a walk in Spain intently designed to raise money.

Obviously, the walking is my own personal reflection space, but what I have done historically is on my walk I will record short videos and send them back to get posted on social media. People can follow me and there’s a link to contribute. It’s a space of humility and gratitude and effectively saying to others, ‘Join me in helping those less fortunate than ourselves.’ I think the moniker we have coined … is #thewalkingCEO, and I think we’ll leverage that to raise more funds to specifically target and support those who are less fortunate.

Speaking of traveling, since you live in one of the most desirable vacation destinations in the world, do you have a favorite destination of your own, or is there one on your bucket list?
The trail that I just completed is one of many—it just so happened to be the primary one. … All the trails end at Santiago de Compostela in Northwest Spain at the cathedral where, as legend has it, the remains of St. James, an apostle of Christ, are interred. Obviously, it’s more a tale than it is a fact, but nonetheless, that’s how it became a holy site, and starting in the 9th century people from all over Europe would migrate to pay homage.

Then there’s the Camino Portugués, which starts in Lisbon and goes right across the Atlantic coast about 600-plus kilometers. Camino Francés, the one I completed from the French-Spanish border all the way across, actually goes another 800 kilometers into France. … I take anywhere from eight to nine days on average to do a section, so that will take me about four years to complete, and the Portuguese one about three years. So between now and 2032, I have plans to complete those two, and God willing, beyond that the Kumano Kodo is a Japanese pilgrimage that I have interest in. By 2032 that would put me at 60, and in my mind that’s my prime age to walk some more.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.