XPRIZE FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Ailan is a Junior Copywriter at XPRIZE, assisting the Marketing Team in the creation of high-quality content that resonates with audiences around the world. He maintains a particular interest in interactive storytelling and hopes to explore its potential to affect positive change by unlocking new solutions and inspiring transcultural collaboration through story.
Prior to joining XPRIZE, Ailan was a Copywriter at StretchSense, a New Zealand-based company specializing in a revolutionary branch of performance capture technology. Before this, he worked as a Features Writer for sports content websites, such as VolleyballAdvice.com.
Here, he analyzed the technology surrounding the sport, discussed optimal strategies for training, and offered educational advice for those seeking to improve. His articles garnered the website an additional 45,000 views per month.
Ailan holds an Ancient Masters (MA) in English and Medieval History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and a postgraduate degree from Bournemouth University in Creative Writing and Publishing. During his postgraduate studies, he also worked as an Assistant Editor for Fresher Publishing, a publishing house affiliated with the university there.
Alex Giannou is Co-Head of Institutional Client Group for Deutsche Bank in the Americas. He passionately leads diversity initiatives and is a member of Deustche Bank's Americas Innovation Group. He holds both a BComm in Finance and MBA in Investment Management from Concordia University.
Alex and his wife Natalia are Canadian transplants living in New York and parents of the two sweetest gremlins. They are passionate about contributing - whether through small deeds or larger initiatives - for causes close to their hearts. Alex is an optimist who believes that we live in an age of innovation that will answer the world's greatest problems.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- EVP, Learning, Innovation & Society
Alexander Nicholas comes to XPRIZE, having worked with universities around the world to design innovative education programs and identify barriers that keep students from reaching their potential. At XPRIZE, he creates incentivized prizes to advance critical and emerging learning platforms and grow innovation ecosystems for technology innovators and entrepreneurs to foster an inclusive and sustainable society. Before joining XPRIZE, Dr. Nicholas served as Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he built a vibrant network of institutions, designers, and researchers working together to untangle systemic barriers to institutional transformation.
While Dr. Nicholas was with the Lemelson Foundation, he helped seed a pipeline of inventors and entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life for all and alleviate burdens for people living in poverty around developing countries. In addition, as a senior policy advisor at the US Commerce Department, he co-designed an innovation program based on "clean tech" competition between small businesses and universities as part of Start-Up America initiative. At the National Science Foundation, he was named American Association for the Advancement of Science Policy Fellow in the Division of Graduate Education; in this role, he led committees and headed programs focused on innovation and green technology. Dr. Nicholas has served on multiple advisory boards, including the Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity, Selco Foundation in Bangalore, and Giddens Schools He was also a member of the National Academy of Inventors Selection Committee.
Dr. Nicholas received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Florida State University, where his research focused on the role of sensory experience in the development of the nervous system, before serving as a research scientist at Harvard University.
Alexis Carfagno joins the XPRIZE team as Social Media Manager. She has over 11 years of experience in social media management. Most recently, she sharpened her skills as the Social Media Manager at Seeker / The Verge. She helped increase brand awareness by creating several, viral Twitter Moments, establishing influencer partnerships, writing and hosting short-form videos for the brands' TikTok and Instagram accounts, and helping to increase views on articles through thorough SEO research.
Alexis graduated as summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from California State University, Northridge. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, boxing, and developing her newfound passion of snowboarding.
Job Titles:
- Editor of "the Trump Indictments
- Journalist
Ali Velshi is an award-winning journalist, host of "Velshi" and Chief Correspondent for MSNBC, and a weekly economics contributor to NPR's "Here And Now." He has reported extensively from Ukraine and across Central and Eastern Europe during the Russian invasion. In the US, he has covered the COVID-19 pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and the protests which followed it in Minneapolis, during which he was shot with a rubber bullet fired by authorities while reporting live.
Velshi is known for his immersive on-the-ground reporting and his interactive discussions with small groups, which form part of his ongoing series, Velshi Across America. He hosts the "Velshi Banned Book Club on MSNBC, and the "Velshi Banned Book Club" podcast.
Prior to joining NBC News and MSNBC in 2016, he hosted "Ali Velshi On Target," a nightly primetime show on Al Jazeera America. Before that, he served as CNN's chief business correspondent, anchor of CNN International's "World Business Today," and host of CNN's weekly business roundtable "Your Money." Velshi also co-hosted CNN's morning show, "American Morning." He is the author of Gimme My Money Back and co-author with Christine Romans of How to Speak Money, and of the forthcoming "Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy Of Endurance And The Fight For Democracy" (St. Martin's Press, 2024), and "Open Space: How The Second Great Space Race Will Shape Our Future" (Knopf, 2025).
Velshi is also the editor of "The Trump Indictments" (Mariner Books, 2023), and the author of the foreword to the compendium "Great Muslim Leaders: Lessons For Education" (IAP 2023).
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- Designer
- Director of Advancement
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Program Director, XPRIZE Wildfire
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- Chief Impact Officer
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- Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Carbon Management Office in the Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management at the Department of Energy
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- Senior Director, Individual Giving
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- Vice President, Integrated Marketing
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- Executive Assistant, Learning, Innovation & Society, and Finance
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- CEO
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Founder and CEO of Thrive Global
Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a leading behavior change tech company with the mission of changing the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. She serves on numerous boards, including Onex and The B Team.
Her last two books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time, both became instant international bestsellers. Most recently, she wrote the foreword to Thrive Global's first book Your Time to Thrive: End Burnout, Increase Well-being, and Unlock Your Full Potential with the New Science of Microsteps.
Job Titles:
- Director, Software Engineering
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- Team Relations Manager, XPRIZE Connect
He is former President, BT Americas, one of BT Global Services' four regions. Boustridge joined BT Global Services in April 2007, assuming responsibility for all aspects of BT's operations and performance in the United States and Canada. He also manages BT Professional Services and BT Global Financial Services globally and has a coordinating role within BT's Asia Pacific region.
Michael has extensive global experience in the IT services sector, which ideally qualifies him to execute on BT's vision of growth within the region.
Prior to this appointment, Boustridge was Vice President, Sales and Marketing, at EDS, where he was instrumental in achieving the company's highest total contract value for new business signings in five years.
A native New Zealander, Boustridge joined EDS in 1996 from Hitachi Data Systems, and worked at IBM earlier in his career. He's an avid rugby fan and enjoys motorcycle riding in his spare time.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant, Advancement, Business Affairs, People & Culture
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- Program Director, XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion
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- Integrated Marketing Manager
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- Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, Carbon Removal Lab
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- Integrated Marketing Manager
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- Executive Program Director, XPRIZE Water Scarcity
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- Senior Manager, Climate & Energy Roadmap
Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and a tireless advocate for science and technology. He is the founder of DEKA Research & Development Corp., where he develops internally generated inventions and provides research and development for major corporate clients. He holds more than 1000 U.S. and foreign patents for innovative devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. Some of his notable inventions include the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics, the HomeChoice™ portable peritoneal dialysis machine, the iBOTTM mobility device, and the Segway® Human Transporter.
Diane Murphy has worked with XPRIZE since its inception and proud to be a member of the Board of Trustees and now the Spirit of LA.
She leads the Aquarius Group, an international, multi-disciplinary public relations-public affairs firm, specializing in supporting business initiatives through targeted advocacy, marketing and communications campaigns, film, and event management. The firm represents leaders and disruptors in AI, autonomous mobility, aerospace, satellite, and space systems, education, media, planetary science, tech and biotech.
Her career began in the US Congress as a press secretary. and she subsequently managed more than 30 political campaigns. She has served as a senior executive for Airbus (EADS) and SpaceX, and Northrop Grumman, and has consulted for startups to Fortune 100 companies, including: B612, British Telecom, C2 Montreal, IMAX, Iridium, Lockheed Martin, Masdar, Motorola, Vaxxinity, Indy Autonomous Challenge, SpinLaunch, and Singularity University. She also was a senior consultant to the Under Secretary of Energy at DOE, and Secretary General of NATO.
Diane studied at Friends Academy, Northwestern University, and Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She is a trustee of the XPRIZE Foundation and serves on the board of Youth Service America. She resides at the top of the Hollywood Hills, and her passions include her family and pets, piano, tennis, writing, and mentoring young people.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Professor, Delft University of Technology
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- Catalyst Team Lead, Center for Natural Climate Solutions at Conservation International
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- Chief Technology Officer, Applied Ocean Sciences LLC
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- Executive Director, University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources ( SER )
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- Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company
James Manyika is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, chairman and director of McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) and a member of McKinsey's board. Based in Silicon Valley for over 20 years, James has worked with the chief executives and founders of many of the world's leading tech companies on a variety of issues including strategy and innovation. James has led research on technology, the digital economy, productivity and competitiveness. Earlier in his career, James published a book on AI and robotics, more recently on global economic trends as well as numerous articles and reports.
James was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as vice chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, and by US Commerce Secretaries to the Commerce Department's Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board. He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Hewlett, MacArthur, and Markle Foundations. He routinely collaborates with technologists, economists and philanthropists on initiatives related to inclusive growth, technology and other moonshots for societal impact.
With a keen interest in research in science and technology, he serves on board of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and on advisory boards at Oxford's Internet institute, Stanford's Human Centered AI Institute and the 100-year study on AI, MIT's AI Policy Forum, LSE, as well as Harvard's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He has been appointed a visiting professor at Oxford, a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Responsible Computing.
A Rhodes Scholar, James received his DPhil, MSc, and MA. from Oxford in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science, his BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe as an Anglo-American Scholar. He has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a distinguished fellow of Stanford's AI Institute, a visiting fellow of All Souls College, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a fellow of DeepMind.
James was a visiting scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Labs and a faculty exchange fellow at MIT. At Oxford, he was a fellow of Balliol, and a member of the Programming Research Group and the Robotics Research Lab.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Soil Carbon Solutions Center at Colorado State University
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- Senior Scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research ( PIK )
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- Psychologist
- Founder and CEO of Age Wave
Over the past 40+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America's foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health care, economic and workforce implications of the age wave.
Ken is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling author of 18 books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind, Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society, Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, Healthy Aging, Gideon's Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings, A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success and What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life's Third Age (an Amazon #1 bestseller in both the retirement and business marketing categories). He also released a memoir in April 2021: Radical Curiosity: One Man's Search for Cosmic Magic and a Purposeful Life (an Amazon #1 New Release in the psychologist biographies category). He was the executive producer and host of the highly rated/acclaimed PBS documentary, The Boomer Century: 1946-2046 which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations nationwide and his new Public Television special is titled Life's Third Age.
Since 1986, Ken has been the Founder and CEO of Age Wave, an acclaimed think tank and consultancy focused on the social and business implications and opportunities of global aging and rising longevity. His client list has included over half the Fortune 500. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum and was a featured speaker at two White House Conferences on Aging. Ken has twice received the distinguished American Society on Aging Award for outstanding national leadership, and American Demographics honored him as the single most influential marketer to baby boomers over the past quarter century. His article in the Harvard Business Review, "It's Time to Retire Retirement," was awarded the prestigious McKinsey Award, tying for first place with the legendary Peter Drucker. He was honored by Investment Advisor as one of the 35 most influential thought leaders in the financial services industry over the past 35 years. Ken and his wife, Maddy, recently received the Esalen Prize for their outstanding contributions to advancing the human potential of aging men and women worldwide. In 2018 he was awarded the Inspire Award from in the International Council on Active Aging for his exceptional and lasting contributions to the active-aging industry and for his efforts to make a difference in the lives of older adults globally. In 2020, he was the first recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Retirement Coaches Association.
During his career, Ken has addressed more than two million people worldwide in his speeches to corporate, association, social service, and government groups. His strikingly accurate predictions and innovative ideas are regularly featured in leading print and electronic media worldwide and have garnered nearly fifteen billion media impressions.
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- Research Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania
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- Watt University Research Centre for Carbon Solutions
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- Associate Professor - Ocean College, Zhejiang University
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- Senior Vice President, Partnerships & Impact
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- Senior Associate, Systems
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- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Mr. Eric Anderson is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the commercial human space flight and space tourism industry, an astropreneur (as coined by Wired magazine). As the President and CEO of Space Adventures, Mr. Anderson has led the world's premier space tourism company to several years of profitable success and has sold more than $80M in space tourist flights; including the first and only two tourists to fly to the International Space Station (ISS); Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth. Mr. Anderson co-founded Space Adventures in 1997 with several former astronauts and leading visionaries from the aerospace, adventure travel, and entertainment industries.
Mr. Anderson's vision is to open the space frontier to private citizens, and to develop and utilize space resources for the benefit of people on Earth. He has been and remains an outspoken advocate of commercial space transportation, private space exploration, and space tourism. Through the development of myriad space experiences on Earth, via Space Adventures' commercial suborbital spaceflight program, and through the continued flight of commercial passengers such as Tito, and Shuttleworth to the ISS, Space Adventures has created a paradigm that makes space flight available to people all over the world. Previously, Mr. Anderson was the principal and co-founder of Starport.com which was sold to SPACE.com in June 2000. Mr. Anderson also worked as a business development lead for Analytical Graphics, the leading aerospace software firm; and has held various consulting and research positions with NASA, where he authored several technical papers and articles, on topics ranging from space tourism to launch vehicle analysis to business and economic evaluations of various space-related ventures. He is also a guest speaker and lecturer on various topics in the aviation and aerospace industry.
Mr. Anderson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia, with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, and was selected by USA Today as one of the nation's Top 40 graduating seniors of 1996.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Eric Hirshberg is a multi-industry business and creative leader. He is the former President & CEO of Activision (the largest division of Activision/Blizzard) where he oversaw an 8 year period of explosive growth and innovation. During Eric's tenure, the company's stock increased over 600% and it's market capitalization grew by over 400%. Eric delivered the biggest 8 years in the company's history, the industry's #1 game franchise in North America 8 years in a row with "Call of Duty," the biggest new franchise launch in the industry's history with "Destiny," and the biggest new, kid's franchise ever recorded with Skylanders.
Before leading Activision, Eric built and led the world-renowned advertising agency Deutsch LA, where he served as CEO/Chief Creative Officer. He built the agency from just 10 employees into a national powerhouse with clients such as Volkswagen, Sony PlayStation, DirecTV, HTC, Dr. Pepper and Snapple. Eric was named Creative Leader of the Year by the Advertising Agency Association twice, was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement, was named one of the ten most influential people in marketing by Advertising Age and one of the 50 most creative people in business by Creativity Magazine.
Eric is currently an investor and advisor in early stage, world-positive companies. He sits on the Advisory Boards of Beta Technologies, Masterclass and Up Partners, to name a few. He sits on the Boards of The XPrize Foundation, UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture. He has also created numerous ad campaigns for non-profits including UCLA's Hammer Museum, the Democratic National Committee and The Holocaust Museum. He is also an accomplished singer/songwriter.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Executive Chairman of VerdeGo Aero
Erik Lindbergh is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of VerdeGo Aero which provides Powertrain Systems and Engineering Services to the emerging electric aircraft industry. Erik serves as Chairman of the Board of the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, and on the board of trustees of the XPRIZE Foundation. Erik and his wife Lyn Co-Host The Lindberghs podcast focusing on second chances in life. Never sitting still for long, Erik can also be found climbing and skiing big snowy mountains in the wilds of Canada, exploring trails on a mountain bike and carving unique furniture and sculptures inspired by nature.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Senior Associate
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Senior Director, Advancement
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chairman, Singularity University, Space, Energy, & Environmental Systems Co - Founder & Secretary, XPRIZE
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Technical Lead of XPRIZE Water Scarcity
Jack Hidary built his career as an entrepreneur in the finance and technology sectors and is currently focused on clean energy technology and policy. He co-founded Vista Research in 2001 as an independent financial research company serving institutional investors. Jack sold Vista to the Standard & Poor's division of McGraw-Hill in April of 2005.
In 1995, he co-founded and served as President and CEO of EarthWeb/Dice. He raised three private rounds of equity and completed a record breaking IPO. Under his leadership, EarthWeb/Dice earned the prestigious Business Week Info Tech 100 award as the third fastest growing IT Company. Dice.com is currently traded on the NYSE under ticker DHX.
Committed to community and philanthropic causes, Jack has received several industry and community awards as well as being recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, Davos. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Clinton Global Initiative.
Jack has been particularly involved in issues of energy and transportation. He is Chairman and Co-Founder of the Freedom Prize Foundation, which provides monetary prizes to cities, schools and other entities that can most reduce their petroleum use. The Freedom Prizes were mandated by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Title X: 1008).
In New York City, he was a leading proponent of switching over the taxi fleet to high mileage hybrids. Jack serves as Chairman of SmartTransportation.org, a non-profit dedicated to promoting clean energy and transportation policy in the US.
Jack studied philosophy and neuroscience at Columbia University and was then awarded a Stanley Fellowship in Clinical Neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under the fellowship, he conducted research in functional neuroimaging using techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study brain and disease states.
Jack serves on several boards including BT Global Services and Trickle Up. A frequent keynote speaker, he has presented at venues including the business schools of Yale and Columbia.
Born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, James Cameron grew up in the historic village of Chippawa, near Niagara Falls. In 1971, he moved to Brea, California where he studied physics at Fullerton Junior College while working as a machinist and, later, a truck driver. Cameron quit his trucking job in 1978 and raised money from local dentists to produce a 35mm short film.
The visual effects in this film led to work on Roger Corman's BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). In 1983, Cameron wrote three scripts: RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2, ALIENS, and THE TERMINATOR. He directed THE TERMINATOR, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 1984.
As an explorer, Cameron has been equally fascinated by outer as well as inner space. He is currently a co-investigator on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mastcam, which will be the first 3D motion imaging camera to operate on another planet, when it begins its exploration there in 2011. Cameron served on the NASA Advisory Council for three years.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Multimedia Designer, Creative Services
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- EVP, Health
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- Director, Digital Marketing
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- Technical Lead, XPRIZE Wildfire
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Chief Marketing Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Project Manager, Prize Design
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- Executive Assistant, Climate and Conservation, IT & Infrastructure
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- CTO, EVP Deep Technology
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Program Director, XPRIZE Rainforest
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- Team Relations Manager, Feed the Next Billion
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- Senior Manager, Partnerships & Impact
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- Director, Content and Community
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- Director, People & Culture
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- Chief People Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Project Manager, XPRIZE Carbon Removal
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- Technical Lead, Rainforest XPRIZE
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Founder & CEO, Global Space Ventures
Larry Page was Google's founding CEO and grew the company to more than 200 employees and profitability before moving into his role as President, Products in April 2001. He continues to share responsibility for Google's day-to-day operations with Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin.
The son of Michigan State University computer science professor Dr. Carl Victor Page, Page's love of computers began at age six. While following in his father's footsteps in academics, Page became an honors graduate from the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering, with a concentration on computer engineering. During his time in Ann Arbor, Page served as President of the University's Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society and built a programmable plotter and inkjet printer out of Legos.
While in the Ph.D. program in computer science at Stanford University, Page met Sergey Brin and together they developed and ran Google, which began operating in 1998. Page went on leave from Stanford after earning his master's degree. He was granted an honorary MBA by Instituto de Empresa and was the first recipient of the University of Michigan Alumni Society Recent Engineering Graduate Award.
Page has been a speaker at such forums as the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference, The Wall Street Journal Technology Summit, the World Economic Forum and the Commonwealth Club. He was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow in 2002 as well as a "Young Innovator Who Will Create the Future" by MIT's Technology Review magazine. Page is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) for the University of Michigan College of Engineering, has been recognized as Research and Development Magazine's Innovator of the Year and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.
"I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. In fact, there are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name." - Larry Page
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- Manager, Individual Giving
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- EVP, Food, Water & Waste
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- Senior Researcher in the Health Grand Challenge Area
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Chairman, Spiral Health Board of Trustees, XPRIZE
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- Integrated Marketing Manager, Climate & Energy and Deep Tech & Quantum Grand Challenge Areas
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- Manager, Events and Experiences
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- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Finance
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
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- Senior Technical Lead, XPRIZE Carbon Removal
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- Project Manager, XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion
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- Manager, XPRIZE Rainforest
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- Program Director, XPRIZE Connect
Naveen is an intensely curious entrepreneur who is focused on the audacious ideas that will push humanity forward. He is the author of the award-winning book Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance. His current moonshot adventures are Viome and Moon Express. As a serial entrepreneur, he previously founded InfoSpace, Intelius, and TalentWise.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, XPRIZE Carbon Removal
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- General Counsel
- Member of the Leadership Team
Paresh Ghelani is an avid entrepreneur and philanthropist who focuses on solving problems through innovation and entrepreneurship. He is currently active in building and investing in Moon Express, Viome Inc, DTV Motor Corporation, Ferrate Treatment Technologies, Casepoint, Radimmune Therapeutics. He believes in investing and mentoring companies and entrepreneurs who are taking moon shots and changing the world by building breakthrough technologies.
One of Paresh's passion project as a philanthropist is XPRIZE Foundation which leads the world in solving grand challenges through incentive prize. Paresh along with Ratan Tata and Naveen Jain also brought the XPRIZE foundation to India to solve India's greatest challenges like health, sanitation, women's safety, access to clean water, waste management, and other challenges.
Truly living by his motto, "work hard in silence and let your success be the noise", Paresh has successfully founded and built the 2020 Company LLC , from the ground up from 1 to 1000+ employees, providing the US government advance technology in education, defense, and healthcare space. The successful company was later acquired by a private equity firm. Prior to the 2020 Company LLC, Paresh had founded and successfully built two other companies in the technology field.
Through his body of work and achievements Paresh sets an example as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and also is an inspiration to young aspiring entrepreneur around the world who are on a mission to make a positive impact on humanity moving forward.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Executive Chairman of the Board
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- EVP, Biodiversity & Conservation
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- Manager, Global Visioneering
Ratan N. Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, from 1991 till his retirement on December 28, 2012. Effective December 29, 2012, Mr. Tata has been conferred the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.
Mr. Tata was the Chairman of the major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices and during his tenure, the group's revenues grew manifold, totaling over $ 100 billion in 2011-12.
Mr. Tata serves on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation and JP Morgan Chase. He is the Chairman of the Tata Trusts which are amongst India's oldest, non-sectarian philanthropic organizations that work in several areas of community development. He is the Chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and also serves on the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California.
Mr. Tata joined the Tata group in 1962. After serving in various companies, he was appointed Director-in-charge of the National Radio & Electronics Company Limited in 1971. In 1981, he was named Chairman of Tata Industries, the group's other holding company, where he was responsible for transforming it into a group strategy think tank, and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses.
Mr. Tata received a B.Arch. degree from Cornell in 1962. He worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1975.
The Government of India honored Mr. Tata with its second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008. He has been appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and Rockefeller Foundation has conferred him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Among his other achievements, Mr. Tata is also an honorary fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Royal Academy of Engineering and a foreign associate of National Academy of Engineering. He has received honorary doctorates from several universities in India and overseas.
Ray Kurzweil has been described as "the restless genius" by the Wall Street Journal, and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison," and PBS included Ray as one of 16 "revolutionaries who made America," along with other inventors of the past two centuries.
As one of the leading inventors of our time, Ray was the principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. Ray's web site Kurzweil AI.net has over one million readers.
Among Ray's many honors, he is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize, the world's largest for innovation. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House ceremony. And in 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, established by the US Patent Office.
He has received thirteen honorary Doctorates and honors from three U.S. presidents.
Ray has written five books, four of which have been national best sellers. The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into 9 languages and was the #1 best selling book on Amazon in science. Ray's latest book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times best seller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy.
Richard Garriott de Cayeux currently serves as the President of the Explorers Club. He is a founding father of the videogame industry and the commercial spaceflight industry, a flown astronaut, and the first explorer to have explored pole to pole, orbited the Earth, and reached the deepest point in the Ocean.
Richard has been inducted into the computer gaming hall of fame and received the industry lifetime achievement award. He is credited with creating the now ubiquitous term "avatar" for one's virtual self and the category of massively multiplayer games (MMORPGs). He authored the acclaimed Ultima Series and has built 3 leading gaming companies: Origin Systems (sold to Electronic Arts), Destination Games (sold to NCsoft) and Portalarium.
As a principal shaper of the commercial spaceflight industry, he cofounded Space Adventures, the first company to arrange space flights for private citizens and is the sixth private astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station. The son of a NASA astronaut, he became the first second-generation astronaut, served on NASA advisory Council, and has been a key leader in civilian and commercial space through institutions such as the Challenger Center for Science Education, the XPRIZE Foundation, and Space Adventures.
Richard is an avid explorer, having traveled around the globe from the jungles of the Amazon to the South Pole, the deep seas of the Titanic and hydrothermal vents to orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station, and most recently to Challenger Deep, the deepest point in our Oceans. He is married to Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux, a leading tech entrepreneur and investor, and they have two children, Kinga Shuilong & Ronin Phi."
Rob McEwen followed his father into the investment industry and developed a passion for gold. In 1990, Rob jumped into the mining industry, where he transformed Goldcorp from a collection of small companies into a mining powerhouse. From 1993, when Rob started restructuring Goldcorp to the time he stepped down in 2006, Goldcorp's market capitalization had grown from US$50 million to $8.5 billion and its share price had increased at a 31% compound annual growth rate.
Rob McEwen is currently the Chief Owner, CEO and largest shareholder of McEwen Mining Inc.
In 2007, Rob was appointed to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Vice Chairman
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
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- Specialist Team Relations, XPRIZE Carbon Removal
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Contracts Compliance Associate
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, XPRIZE Water Scarcity
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- Director, Individual Giving
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- Chief Advancement Officer
Job Titles:
- SVP, Alliances and Sponsors
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Product Manager, IT & Infrastructure
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- Associate Director, Rhodium Group
Job Titles:
- Product Manager, Climate & Energy Roadmap
Will Wright is a globally recognized visionary in interactive entertainment and Chief Designer for Electronic Arts as the man behind the block-buster game franchises "SimCity™," "The Sims™" and universe simulator "Spore™."
As a highly respected video game designer, Wright has received numerous awards for his work. In 2007, he received a fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by PC Magazine in 2005, a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2001, and was the fifth person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of fame in 2002.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder
Job Titles:
- Specialist, Programmatic Giving