Within this episode I had the chance to speak with Anousheh Ansari! Anousheh is a visionary entrepreneur, philanthropist, engineer, and space explorer. Anousheh was born in Iran and moved to the United States with her family in 1984. She attended George Mason University and later received a degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University. She then began her career in the technology industry co-founding and serving as CEO for various companies including Telecom Technologies Inc. which offered products that allowed the integration between existing telecom networks and application-centric, next-generation networks via software switch technology. In 2001 Telecom Technologies was acquired by Sonus Networks, Inc. and in 2006 she also co-founded Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) technology firm where she continues to serve as the executive chairwoman. She made history in 2006 when she embarked upon an 11-day space expedition, traveling to the International Space Station as a member of the crew of Soyuz TMA-9 and accomplishing her childhood dream of going to space and in the process becoming the first female private space explorer and the first astronaut of Iranian descent. Anousheh serves on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council and has received numerous honors, including the WEF Young Global Leader, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, among others. She is a board member of over seven not-for-profit organizations focused on STEM education and youth empowerment. Additionally she co-founded The Billion Dollar Fund for Women with a goal of investing $1 billion in women-founded companies by 2020. She has published her memoir, My Dream of Stars, to share her life story as inspiration for young women around the world, her dedication and contributions to the field of space exploration, technology and social causes, has made her an inspiration to many. Today, Anousheh is CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, one of the world’s leaders in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. Ansari, along with her family, sponsored the organization’s first competition, the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million competition that ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight. Since then, she has served on XPRIZE’s Board of Directors. Along with this she continues to inspire others to pursue their dreams and strive for a better future, through her speeches and appearances in media, and her role as an advocate for innovation and entrepreneurship. Within this episode we talked about various things related to her experiences growing up in Iran, her mentality toward facing adversity, her journey and what she learned from Telecom Technologies, what it was like going to space, how life changing the experience was, if she believes in aliens, some of the cool things she does with XPrize, what big issues she thinks are important to address in the coming years, what space smells like, and what she wants to be remembered for. Please enjoy this episode, leave an honest rating and comment, like, and follow or subscribe (depending on your platform) ALSO subscribe to us on Patreon. Important & useful links can be found below!
Links to find Anousheh & The XPrize Foundation
Anousheh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anoushehansari
XPrize foundation website: https://www.xprize.org/
XPrize important links & social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/xprize
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