Anousheh Ansari

Entrepreneurial Success as a Woman

When Anousheh first blasted into space, she not only had to break free of the Earth, trying to hold her back, she also had to escape the thick atmosphere of her profession’s long-time gender discrimination and bias. In this presentation, Anousheh explores with her audience, the incredible journey that she has taken as an Iranian, female, self-funded astronaut, offering insights on just how she did it, and how to ensure the success of your own journey. Whether you are launching into space, or launching your own start-up, Ansari’s advice and instruction on how to achieve your goals, relates to every profession under the sun.

Anousheh understands the challenges all women face in business, as an entrepreneur, and as an “outsider.” As a teenage immigrant to the U.S., she spoke no English. After a long journey that can only be described as universally inspiring, she not only learned English, but also the language of business, and the dance of gender politics. Today, she is the co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems, co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, and she and her family are also the sponsors of the Ansari X Prize, designed to inspire individuals and individual companies to circumvent the inert, apathetic, government and take on space travel themselves – talk about the entrepreneurial spirit! As a female business owner and founder, she has seen the perceived limitations, and not only transcended them, but left them far, far behind.

Space Commercialization & Its Future

Anousheh Ansari is a pioneer in business innovation, integration, invention, ownership, and inspiration. An active proponent of world-changing technologies and social entrepreneurship, Anousheh’s resume is impressive, to say the least.

In this presentation, Anousheh not only shares her vast knowledge of business innovation, invention, and investment, she brings to the audience a perspective that is as rare as she. Will the Ort cloud and Kuiper belt be the next big direct manufacturers? Will the Philae probe which landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimeko, be the next revolutionary widget? We really don’t know, but neither did Sir Richard Branson, and he seems to be doing quite well in the economic space race. This keynote, which is entirely customized for any service or industry, is not just about how to breathe as a business in space…it’s about elevated, inspired thinking and ideas that create the space you need to advance and overcome your obstacles, inability to launch, and most importantly, your awareness of an incredibly advanced way to approach personal and professional fulfillment.

Students, Be the Change You Want to See in the World

Education is a very personal subject for Anousheh. When she first immigrated to the United States, she spoke no English. She immersed herself in education, leading to fluency, as well as a bachelor's degree in electronics and computer engineering, followed by a master's degree in electrical engineering, and soon, a master's degree in astronomy as well. She brought her passion, motivation, and dreams to the table, and education did the rest. Many speakers talk about how their education helped them to find their place in the world…but how many can say, it helped them leave it? As an advocate and role model for students everywhere, there is literally no one better to explain how far education can take them.

In this presentation, Anousheh illustrates that space may just hold answers to save our planet, thus it is the logical suite for natural science education, not to mention how effortlessly space inspires students to be more involved and go further with Science, Technology, Engineering & Math studies. Further showing her commitment, Anousheh is also a key member of the advisory board of the Teachers in Space project, and during her stay at the International Space Station, 50 million worldwide followed her blog, inspiring untold, countless students around the world to believe, really believe that education can take them anywhere they dream to go.