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Revolution Through Competition

X PRIZE Staff

Besides our full-time staff members, we are also supported by countless volunteers and supporters worldwide. To contact a staff member, please use our contact form and your message will be forwarded to the appropriate person. Interested in joining the X PRIZE? Jobs, Internships & Fellowships.

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO

Dr. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org), which awarded the $10,000,000 Ansari X PRIZE (www.xprize.org) for private spaceflight. Diamandis is now focused on building the X PRIZE Foundation into a world-class prize institute whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE is now developing X PRIZEs in fields such as Genomics, Automotive, Education, Medicine, Energy, and Social arenas.

Diamandis is an international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector. Diamandis also serves as the Chairman and CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation (www.gozerog.com) a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flight utilizing a Boeing 727-200 aircraft. He is the Chairman & co-founder of the Rocket Racing League (www.rocketracingleague.com). Diamandis is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Space Adventures (www.spaceadventures.com), the company which brokered the launches of four private citizens to the International Space Station.

In 1987, Diamandis co-founded the International Space University (ISU) (www.isunet.edu) where he served as the University’s first managing director. Today he serves as a Trustee of the $30M ISU that is based in Strasbourg, France. Prior to ISU, Diamandis served as Chairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) an organization he founded at MIT in 1980. SEDS is the world’s largest student pro space organization.

Dr. Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. In 2005 he has was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University.

He is the winner of the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the 2006 Neil Armstrong Award for Aerospace Achievement and Leadership, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. In 8th grade, while living in New York, Dr. Diamandis won first place in the Estes rocket design contest.

Diamandis’ mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!”

Robert K. Weiss, President and Vice Chair

Mr. Weiss is the President and Vice Chair of the X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org). The X PRIZE Foundation’s mission is to foster revolution through incentivized competition.The Foundation has active competitions in Genomics, Automotive Technology and Lunar Exploration and is now developing X PRIZEs in Healthcare, Bionics, Energy, and Oceanographic Exploration.

Weiss is a veteran Hollywood television and film producer having produced over 20 feature films and TV series during the past 25 years. He began his career in the late 1970’s producing the feature film, KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE and later produced the ABC television program POLICE SQUAD! as well as the three NAKED GUN movies starring Leslie Nielsen.

Weiss produced the international hit, THE BLUES BROTHERS for Universal Studios. His other feature filmsproduced for Universal include AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON and DRAGNET.Weiss was the Executive Producer forthe television series WEIRD SCIENCE and SLIDERS (that he co-created).

As president of Broadway Pictures at Paramount, Weiss joined forces with Saturday Night Live Executive Producer and creator Lorne Michaels. Weiss executive produced many films at Paramount including TOMMY BOY, A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY, SUPERSTAR, and THE LADIES MAN. He went on to producethe international hits SCARY MOVIE 3 & 4, and most recentlySUPERHERO MOVIE for Dimension Pictures.

Weiss has served as a consultant and team partner to the Boeing Corporation in the development of a global consortium dedicated to the distribution of space related multimedia entertainment and educational programs, products and services.

Additionally, he served as Executive Producer for the American Rocket Company producing multimedia connected with the development, testing and launch attempt of their pioneering hybrid rocket.

Weiss served on the Board of Directors of IS Robotics (now called iRobot in Cambridge, Massachusetts) from 1990 to 1994.

In 2000, he was Executive Vice President and Executive Producer for the Blastoff! Corporation in Pasadena, California; an entertainment company founded to conduct actual space missions as the foundation for high value media and marketing platforms.

Weiss currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Rocket Racing League, a 21st Century sport launched to become the NASCAR of the skies (www.rocketracingleague.com).

Under the banner of Earthlight (a multimedia production company),Weiss has produced award winning productions for the X PRIZE Foundation, The Boeing Company, the Zero Gravity Corporation and Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer.

Mr. Weiss has been the Vice Chairman and Executive Producer for the X PRIZE Foundation since 1996. In the fall of 2004, he produced the award-winning live telecast & webcast of the Ansari X PRIZE space flights. Weiss has been the President of the X PRIZE Foundation since July, 2008.

X PRIZE Foundation Senior Leadership

Amy Y. Day, VP, Creative Services

Day has been producing award-winning films for nearly twenty years with some 300 projects to her credit. She co-founded The Edge Picture Company (www.edgepicture.com) in 1991, still one of the UK's leading corporate image and communications production companies based in London's Covent Garden, and handled key client accounts including Shell, KPMG, Vauxhall Motors (part of GM), Price Waterhouse Coopers, Victoria & Albert Museum and BT (British Telecom) plc. She also served as Director on the Board of the International Visual Communications Association, the largest business media communications trade association in Europe. Her commitment to quality has been rewarded with many prestigious awards. In 2001, Day was part of the V&A Museum team that was nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts), Britain's top media award. In 2005, she relocated to the US. Before joining the X PRIZE Foundation, Day completed work on 'Inside Rio Carnaval' for PBS and produced the one hour documentary 'The Real Roswell' for National Geographic.

Francis Béland, VP, Prize Development

Francis comes to The X PRIZE Foundation with more than 17 years of experience in large-scale project design, development and funding. This experience will allow him, as VP, Prize Development, to help the Foundation achieve its aggressive goal to fund and launch ten new prizes over the next five years. Prior to joining The X PRIZE Foundation, Francis served as vice president and partner at Montreal-based Sid Lee, an industry leader in commercial creativity. During his time as VP and partner, Francis helped global brands like Cirque Du Soleil, Red Bull and Adidas recognize the commercial potential of creativity by creating brand experiences through products, services and spaces. He also helped market these experiences through advertising, branded content and interactive communications.

Trained in oceanography, Francis started his career building large-scale aquarium attractions around the globe, including the the Biodôme, the Biosphere, the Vancouver Aquarium and the Shark Reef Aquarium. Francis made his mark in the Las Vegas skyline in 1999 with the design and creation of the Shark Reef Aquarium. A $50M project that broke all the rules in traditional collection-based attraction: a fully-themed immersive experience in the underwater world of earth deadliest predators. The Shark Reef aquarium went on to win Las Vegas’ best family attraction for years running. In a creative leadership role, Francis went on the break new grounds in the design of a new immersive and multi-disciplinary public attractions, the Springs Preserve. The Springs Preserve is today one of America’s greenest community-led tourism attractions having the first two Platinum LEED public venues in North America. A $500M project, the Springs Preserve has become a strong public education asset for the community of Las Vegas and with an impressive public outreach and marketing initiatives, the tourism market now has a place where they can learn and appreciate this city they call ‘The Meadows.
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David Donell, Chief Financial Officer

Donell comes to the X PRIZE Foundation with extensive experience building, strengthening and leading the financial function for companies in various stages including start-up, stable and high-growth. In 2005, Donell co-founded Intuitive Associates, Inc., a company handling, among other things, complex corporate tax assignments and forensic work in association with corporate and securities fraud assignment. Prior to founding Intuitive, Donell served as CFO for Avega Health Systems, where he drastically improved overall financial efficiency, positioning the company for eventual sale to MedAssets, Inc. Donell also worked as a Controller for Fasturn, Inc., where he managed human resources matters and staff in addition to his financial duties, and as the Vice President of Finance for Jalmar Properties, Inc. Donell holds a BS in Accounting from San Diego State University, and is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Information Technology Professional.

Keith Kegley, VP, Alliances

Keith Kegley has been involved in innovative technology and philanthropic ventures over a twenty year career that includes fourteen years at Microsoft, and executive roles with technology startups; Slingshot Communications and Spot Runner. He has been partner with Social Venture Partners since 1998 and been implementing and teaching about nonprofit capacity building with dozens of organizations through his work with SVP.

During his tenure at Microsoft Keith was a Technical Evangelist for the early versions of OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. He was a co-inventor of USB and worked with the cross industry team that developed that into a ubiquitous standard. In another role he led the product and marketing for the Microsoft Natural Keyboard business which remade the upgrade keyboard market. In his last role there he led the design, orchestration and roll out of a global micropayment architecture that underpins the XBOX, Windows and Office Live Marketplaces and set the vision for utilizing that capability in emerging markets like China, India and Brazil. Keith was also a Vice President of Product Development with television advertising pioneer Spot Runner and CEO of billing technology innovator Slingshot Communications.

Keith became involved in philanthropy and nonprofit capacity building in 1994 and in 1998 was a founding member of Social Venture Partners. SVP’s mission is to train and develop philanthropists by using a highly engaged venture capital investing model in non-profit organizations. Keith led the research and development of a robust philanthropic curriculum that has trained over 3,000 partners globally in the many skills required to be a successful board member, fund raiser, non-profit strategist and community organizer. Keith has deep domain expertise in the organizational development of nonprofit organizations and in guiding nonprofit organizations to build their capacity and function as a professional high performance organization.

Cristin Lindsay, VP, Prize Operations

Before bringing her process-driven expertise to the X PRIZE Foundation, Lindsay was the Director of Operations for X1 Technologies, helping the desktop search company develop its innovative software and grow from 0 to 40 employees from 2002 to 2006. Before X1, Lindsay worked on several ground-breaking startup companies at Idealab, including Energy Innovations, Omnilux, and XBeams. She also managed Idealab's knowledge management and intranet efforts. Lindsay was part of the Leadership and Organizational Development group at Times Mirror before it was bought by Tribune Company in 2000. She started her career in Advertising Operations at the Los Angeles Times. Lindsay holds a BA in History with a minor in Anthropology from UCLA.

Ferris Thompson, VP, marketing & Sponsorship

Ferris comes to X PRIZE with 22 years of experience in creating and packaging sponsorships, integrated brand campaigns and strategic alliances for Fortune 100 companies.

In his last corporate role as President of the Entertainment practice at Edelman, the world’s largest private communications firm, he lead a team that developed comprehensive marketing and communications campaigns for clients such as GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and the US Government.

Prior to Edelman, Ferris was the Head of Marketing for United Talent Agency where he developed branded entertainment programs and sponsorships with clients like Celine Dion/Chrysler and Blockbuster/NBC. Before UTA Ferris served as the VP Universal Studios Corporate Marketing and Partnerships Group where he was responsible for developing new studio-wide sponsorships and overseeing the activation and servicing of partnerships with PepsiCo, Panasonic, Chrysler and Kodak.

His efforts to help change the world began with a career as an outdoor educator (e.g. Outward Bound). He graduated with a BA from Prescott College, a progressive liberal arts institution with a mission focused on the sustainability, environment and social responsibility. For Ferris the X PRIZE Foundation represents an exciting opportunity to apply his experiences in media and sponsorship toward creating a better world.

X PRIZE Foundation Management
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Mitch Aiken, Director, Education, Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE

Throughout his career, Mitch has brought the resources of the technology, entertainment and education communities together to revitalize teaching and learning. Most recently, as part of Discovery Education’s professional development team, he led intensive hands-on sessions for K-12 faculty in school districts nationwide, modeling effective use of Discovery’s online curriculum services.

As Director of Screen Education at the American Film Institute, Mitch directed the creation, operation and growth of the AFI Screen Education Center. He secured and administered seven years of funding and program support from the United States Department of Education and foundation partners.

Prior to AFI, Mitch served as Director of Education and Interactive Media at KCET, where he guided the use of emerging media to deliver programs and services to an increasingly technology savvy audience. He directed the station’s award winning website and the Interactive Media Center, developing programs and services for teachers, parents and lifelong learners.

Previously, as VP of Operations at Media Learning Systems he oversaw company operations and served as producer/director of award winning multimedia applications for industry and education. Products included the Laserdisc Learning Series, and interactive applications for Unocal, Sizzler, GTE and Albertsons.

He holds an M.Ed. in Educational Media and Instructional Design and a BA in Radio, Television, & Motion Pictures, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Eileen Bartholomew, Senior Director, Prize Development

Eileen joins X PRIZE with nearly fifteen years of experience building innovative programs for public, private and non-profit organizations. Following her graduation from Harvard, she held leadership positions at several boutique and large consulting firms, including Navigant Consulting, advising clients whose industries were undergoing substantial regulatory or structural change, including healthcare, high tech, financial, insurance, and energy markets. Her work has been focused on improving operations, and addressing conflict, performance and risk related challenges for her clients. Eileen is committed to the needs and opportunities of women in business and actively pursues this passion in multiple non-profit institutions, including the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, where she was a board member.
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Bethann Buddenbaum, Manager, Team Development & Relations, Progressive Automotive X PRIZE
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Eric C. Cahill, Senior Director, Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

Eric joins the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE with over 15 years experience directing complex, technology-intense enterprises in a broad range of industries. He has dedicated his career to the commercialization of cleaner alternatives in the automotive and energy sectors. At GM Powertrain, Eric assessed the market for alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. Later, as Program Manager of a government-funded hybrid electric vehicle program, Eric led the team responsible for developing the electric drive train technology for the forthcoming Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid sportscar.

Prior to joining the X PRIZE Foundation, Eric served as COO and founding member of Internet start-up company AbouTime, Inc. Eric is a veteran of the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps and Intelligence communities and a former project manager at Boeing.

Eric earned a joint MS degree in Engineering & Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a MS in Technology & Policy from MIT’s Engineering Systems Division. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, a Masters Certificate in Applied Project Management from Villanova University, and is a registered Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute. He resides in Huntington Beach, CA.
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Heather Carter, Director, Human Resources

Winona Dorris, Manager, Financial Analysis
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Jennine Dwyer, Director, Sponsorship Services

Jennine brings to X PRIZE an impressive background in the auto industry in sponsorships, account management, branding, and marketing. For the last nine years, Jennine worked at General Motors R*Works in Thousand Oaks, where she served as Marketing Director of Buick-Pontiac-GMC divisions managing strategic positioning, marketing activation, budgets, and direct mail campaigns with online components.

Prior to her marketing position, Jennine worked as General Motors R*Works’ Public Relations Event Supervisor where she was responsible for identifying celebrity and influencer event sponsorship opportunities in addition to coordinating programs between General Motors media, advertising and public relations agencies. Jennine graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communications: Advertising/Graphic Design from Northern Arizona University.
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Vijay Goel, M.D., Senior Director, Healthcare Prize Development

Vijay comes to X PRIZE Foundation with a strong background in innovation, health systems, and technology. He initially entered medicine with the desire to become a preventive medicine pediatrician and realized the current system would not fund this type of practice. During medical school, he started to explore the broader health system and how it worked. Following completion of his medical degree, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co, with a focus on consumerism in healthcare and new product development in the health and life sciences. Post-McKinsey, he founded HealthShoppr.com, a company allowing consumers to comparison shop for healthcare appointments. Vijay holds a B.S. in Physiological Sciences from UCLA, a M.D. from USC-Keck School of Medicine. He lives in Santa Monica with wife Elizabeth.
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Mark Krynsky, Manager, Web Production, Creative Services

Mark comes to the X PRIZE Foundation with over 10 years of experience in the online space, most recently having held project management positions at CitySearch and Traffic Marketplace. He has a passion for technology both personally and professionally that is translated in his work ethic. Mark is a leading advocate of open source platforms which are essential to the Foundation and other non-profits. In addition to his work at the Foundation Mark has knowledge and experience with social media services and associated tools and is a leading voice on the concept of lifestreaming.

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Jon Madjidov, Manager, IT

Jaykumar Menon, Senior Director, Education and Global Development, Prize Development

Jaykumar Menon is an award-winning international human rights lawyer, a research fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law based at McGill, and a serial entrepreneur. As a lawyer working with the Center for Constitutional Rights, he has represented the student leaders from Tiananmen Square, helped win a $4 billion judgment on behalf victims of the Bosnian genocide, helped represent the family of the late Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, freed a man from death row, and freed an man serving a life sentence for a murder he did not commit by helping track down the real killer. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded a currently profitable Internet company that has developed and licensed a proprietary advertising technology. As a scholar, he has published in leading peer-reviewed international law journals, including the Oxford University Press. He has also worked at McKinsey. Jaykumar studied at Columbia Law School, Brown Medical School (completed one year), the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (M.I.A), and Brown University (B.A). He hopes to be able to affect positive social change.

Meghan Murphy, Director, Alliances

Murphy joins the Foundation with a rich background in business development, marketing, and market analysis. Most recently, she served as a Senior Marketing Manager at ServiceSource, a technology services firm in San Francisco, where she was active in corporate positioning and messaging, market strategy, sales team enablement and demand generation activities. Murphy also worked in business development for Yahoo! Search Marketing in Burbank. Prior to earning her Masters in Business at UCLA, Murphy spent four years on Wall Street in Equity Research for Salomon Smith Barney.

Murphy has a B.A. in History from Princeton University , and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. She was also a NCAA Division 1 Squash Champion in 1998 and 1999 while at Princeton. A native of McLean, Virginia, she now resides in Santa Monica.

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William Pomerantz, Senior Director, Space Prizes

Pomerantz holds a BA in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University, and a Masters of Science in Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. In addition to his work on the X PRIZE Foundation's space prizes, Pomerantz also serves as a coach for the Zero Gravity Corporation, joining passengers in weightlessness on parabolic flights. He is a graduate of the NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center and has formerly worked at Harvard University, Brown University and the Futron Corporation, an aerospace consultancy based in Bethesda, Maryland. Pomerantz is a co-founder of SpaceAlumni.com, an online news and networking tool for young space professionals around the world, and served as Chief Editor for two years. He is currently Vice President of the ISU-USA Alumni Association. From 2006 through early 2007, Pomerantz proudly served on a National Research Council Federal Advisory Committee producing a report on "Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space Exploration."
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Kacy Qua, Manager, Alliances

Kacy comes to us with an extensive background in business development and consulting, as well as significant fundraising experience. She earned her MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in June. While in school, Kacy worked at Participant Media developing innovative strategies and partnership solutions promoting Participant’s new online social action venture, takepart.com, as well as on an M&A Integration for Deloitte Consulting. Prior to Anderson, Kacy was a Labor Relations Representative for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and worked with the Lockheed Martin Foundation to secure several thousand dollars per year in corporate funding for the American Cancer Society.

Kacy holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a certificate in International Business from the University of Copenhagen. On weekends, Kacy can be found surfing and snowboarding.
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Robyn Ready, Project Manager, Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

Marc Schulman, Director, Event Management, Creative Services

Schulman came to the X PRIZE Foundation in August of 2006 with 10 years of marketing experience from his previous position with the Fiesta Bowl Foundation. During his tenure at the Fiesta Bowl Foundation he served in a multitude of roles supporting various events in and around the state of Arizona. He began his career as Event Coordinator, managing the 50+ events that make up the Fiesta Bowl and Insight Bowl Festival. In 1998, Schulman transitioned into a marketing and sponsorship role. In this capacity he was responsible for generating revenue based on sponsorship sales and partnership gifts to support the Fiesta Bowl Foundation's varied events. Schulman holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Leslie Surley, Senior Director, Sponsorship Services

Leslie brings to the X PRIZE an impressive background in account management and client relations, sponsorships, promotions, branding, and digital, mobile, retail, and experiential marketing. Leslie previously served as Interactive Account Director from The Traffic Agency in El Segundo, where she lead and developed integrated marketing programs, including managing all aspects of digital marketing, as well as working closely with account planning teams to promote concept and strategy integration.

Prior to her work at The Traffic Agency, Leslie served as Account Director at ePrize, where she designed and oversaw custom branding and engagement programs to meet client objectives. She also worked at KCBS Marketing as a Marketing Strategist on promotional, experiential and cause marketing programs, and at Maritz Loyalty Marketing as a National Account Executive. Leslie graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science/Comparative Politics.
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Michael Timmons, Manager, Communications

Sharon Wang, Manager, Accounting

Steve Wesoloski, Director, Technical Operations

Steve Wesoloski has over 20 years experience in the Big 3 Automotive Industry, with a focus on engineering and motorsports. Most recently, he served as the Road Racing Group Manager for GM Racing. As technical and administrative leader of this group, he was responsible for a multi-million dollar annual budget distributed over up to four major programs, team contract negotiations and execution, as well as sanctioning body rules negotiation. Earlier in his career, Wesoloski was the Lead Chassis Engineer for Corvette Racing. He started at GM as an engineer on the fourth-generation Corvette.
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Julie Zona, Director, Team Development and Relations, Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

Julie Zona comes to the Progressive Automotive X Prize team with fifteen years of experience in the automotive industry. With her early years spent working in environmental coordination at Mayco Plastics, then Chrysler Corporation, she soon turned her focus to product development. With a career spanning more than thirteen years at Chrysler, Julie held a variety of positions including roles in manufacturing, vehicle development, product planning/strategy, Dodge marketing, and program management for current and future Chrysler programs. Most recently she worked at Saleen Inc. as the Director of Marketing and Program Planning, with responsibility for planning and overseeing the execution of all current Saleen and Racecraft programs from concept to launch. Julie holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Detroit. She is a native of Michigan, and will represent the X PRIZE team from an office outside of Detroit.

Operations & Administration

Valerie Arias, Associate, Communications

Edmond Bina, Associate, Production, Creative Services

Ayshea Buckley, Associate, Accounting

Lindsey Burris, Executive Assistant, Marketing & Sponsorship

Christina Cavalli, Associate, Human Resources

C-David Jones, Office Assistant
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Nicole Jordan, Associate, Team Liaison, Google Lunar X PRIZE

David Locke, Associate, Prize Operations

Angela Maung, Associate, Creative Services

Lina Morlando, Associate, Prize Development

Heidi Pancake, Executive Assistant, Prize Operations

Stephanie Schneider, Associate, Marketing & Sponsorship

Gianelle Smith, Associate, Marketing & Sponsorship

Amanda Stiles, Associate, Online Community and Google Liaison, Google Lunar X PRIZE

Elke Stoll, Associate, Accounting

Taryn Wiliams, Executive Assistant, Prize Development