Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE
Today, my guest is Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, the world’s leader in driving innovation to solve humanities grand challenges founded by Peter Diamandis. Prior to XPRIZE, Anousheh served as the CEO and Chairwoman of Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) technology firm she co-founded in 2006. While under her leadership, the company earned recognition as one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies and Deloitte & Touche’s Fast 500 technology companies.
In 2006, Anousheh became the first female private space explorer and fourth private explorer to visit space. Beyond XPRIZE, Anousheh serves as chair of the cyber community of Jabil, on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council, co-chair of the quantum track of GESDA, and is an advisor of the Open Quantum Institute.
She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and serves on the board, a life member of the Association of Space Explorers, and is a Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. As part of her life-long support for women in industry, Anousheh co-founded The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, which successfully invested $1B in women-founded companies by 2020.
Anousheh holds a BS in Electronics and Computer Engineering from George Mason University, a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, and honorary Doctorates from George Mason University, Utah Valley University, and International Space University.
In this candid conversation, Anousheh shared the real stories behind her childhood dreams of space, her journey to the International Space Station, and her mission to solve humanity’s biggest challenges through the XPRIZE Foundation.
1. A Starry-Eyed Childhood. Anousheh revealed that her passion for space began as a young girl in Iran, where she had the opportunity to sleep outside under the night sky during the summer. Staring up at the beautiful stars sparked a deep curiosity about the universe and a burning desire to fly in space herself, which ultimately drove her to pursue a career in math and science.
2. Sponsoring a Commercial Space Race. After successfully selling her company, Anousheh met XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, who wanted to create a commercial space competition inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s historic aviation flight. Because Peter was struggling to find financial backers, Anousheh stepped in to sponsor the audacious challenge: offering a massive cash prize to the first team to build a spaceship and fly it to the edge of space twice within two weeks.
3. The Ultimate Space Vacation. Her sponsorship of the initial XPRIZE eventually gave Anousheh the opportunity to fulfill her lifelong childhood dream of actually going to space. After nine months of intense training in Russia as a cosmonaut, she spent 11 glorious days aboard the International Space Station, admitting it was so incredible that she even tried to hide on the station so she wouldn’t have to return to Earth.
4. Architecting Equitable Abundance. Originally stepping in as a temporary CEO for the foundation, Anousheh fell in love with the job and now leads XPRIZE’s efforts to solve global challenges across seven different domains. Today, she oversees massive competitions—including a $119 million water scarcity prize and a $100 million carbon extraction competition—with a grand vision of architecting a future of “equitable abundance” for all of humanity by the year 2040.
