Biography

Zaheer Ali is a respected expert on space technology and policy, an agilist, leader, and technologist. He is now a partner with Space Outcomes LLC, co-founder of Positon Inc. a partner at New Space Finance, and until recently Professor of Practice at Thunderbird School of Global Management, which is part of ASU. Previously he has served in executive positions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, directing strategy for High Performance Compute, and advised or participated with multiple space startups such as Puslar Space, Magdrive, Parsimoni, ThinkOrbital, Paterson Aerospace, and Space Railway amongst others. He is invited to speak around the world on space, artificial intelligence, quantum, the future of work, and how to help enterprises become agile.

He also served as a Senior Manager at USRA, leading aviation data sciences, artificial intelligence, quantum sciences, and nanotechnology for the NASA Ames NAMS contract. He was formerly a senior member of the project management office for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) with responsibility for all software products and safety and quality of all USRA work on SOFIA. He also built science instrumentation and the laboratory facilities for SOFIA and stood up their science ground operations. In addition, he managed science ground support on multiple deployments around the world.

Zaheer is also a founding executive for Material Mind, an applied AI science company, and AIXIA Global, an Industry 4.0 technology integration and digital/agile transformation company. He is trained as a research physicist which has resulted in patents, an R&D100 award, and over 40 authored or co-authored publications. He has also worked as an engineer and manager of teams and programs for the US Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site where he co-founded the National Center for Nuclear Security, worked as a Principal Investigator and Shot Director at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics of the University of Rochester and consulted as a micro/nano device (MEMS) engineer, with over 12,000 hours “in the fab.”

Zaheer is a first generation American of India ancestry and Muslim faith. He is also a practicing Stoic and has been honored to be part of a Maori Whanau, wearing his 3rd generation Punamu with pride. His perspectives on space and the future are a consilience of Eastern and Western ideas with an inherent integration of indigenous wisdom.

E-MGM: Thunderbird School of Global Management, Global Management
BA: University of California at Berkeley, Physics