Zaheer Ali is a respected space technology and policy expert, an agilist, leader, and technologist. He is now COO at Positon Inc., a Managing Partner at New Space Finance, and a Professor of Practice at Thunderbird School of Global Management, which is part of ASU. Previously Mr. Ali has served in executive positions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, directing strategy for High-Performance Compute, ThinkOrbital, which is building a 4th generation space station, and Space Railway. He speaks worldwide on space, artificial intelligence, the future of work, and how to help enterprises become agile. As a professor and entrepreneur, Mr. Ali advises several companies in the New Space Sector. 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.
Zaheer is a 1st 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 and wears 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.