Anousheh Ansari is co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. (TTI). Along with her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, she made a multi-million contribution to the X-Prize foundation on May 5, 2004, the 43rd anniversary of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital spaceflight. The X-Prize was officially renamed the Ansari X Prize in honor of their donation.

Born in 1967 in Tehran, Iran, Ansari witnessed the Iranian revolution in 1979. She immigrated to the United States in 1984 at the age of sixteen and received her bachelor's of science in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason University. She received her master's degree at George Washington University.

Ansari, along with her husband Hamid and brother-in-law Amir, founded TTI in 1993. The company was acquired by Sonus Networks in 2000. Ansari was listed in Fortune magazine's "40 under 40" list in 2001 and honored by Working Woman magazine as the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence award.

External links

--Failure Was Never an Option for Mason Alumna -- article about Anousheh Ansari from George Mason University alumni newsletter