Chris Stott is the founder, Chair and CEO of ManSat, the world’s first, and now largest, commercial satellite spectrum firm and was also key in founding the multi-billion dollar space and satellite industry on the Isle of Man. He is presently Chair of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), the largest professional association in the global space and satellite industry. He was named Celton Businessman of the year in 2010.
A founder of the International Institute of Space Commerce, he is also a passionate activist for STEM & STEAM education serving as faculty at the ISU and on the University’s Main Board and with the Conrad Foundation, Challenger Centers, and the United Space School. At ISU he teaches entrepreneurialism, networking, and other business topics and is a past Co-Chair of the School of Management and Business. He also teaches on the TED Fellows program.
Chris is also a co-founder of the Manna Energy Foundation and Geeks Without Frontiers, focused on bringing clean energy, clean water and clean telecoms (the ‘worldwide well’) to the developing world via sustainable enterprise, and recently completed the world’s first IEEE Certified Open Source 80211s Mesh Networks protocols with the support of Google, RIM, Microsoft, Laptop Per Child, Global Connect, and Nokia.
Chris serves on the Board of the AMAR US Foundation, having worked with Baroness Nicholson on AMAR in the early 1990s when AMAR was first founded. Chris was then working in the House of Commons for Emma when she was a Member of Parliament, having come to this position from interning and volunteering in the US Senate and on at a senior level on two US Presidential Campaigns.
He is a published author and produces the occasional movie, with three projects currently under work. His work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, the Financial Times, Le Monde, the BBC, and Wired Magazine. A fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, Member of the Reform Club, and the International Institute of Space Law, Chris is also a TED’ster and TEDx Curator (ISU, Douglas, and Sugarland).
After working in executive positions with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Chris left Lockheed Martin in 2000 to become an entrepreneur in the space industry before it was trendy.
Born on the Isle of Man, Chris is a now an American Citizen by choice (having read way too much Jefferson). He resides in Houston, Texas with his wife, retired NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott, and their son. He is a keen shot (skeet, trap, pistol and rifle), SCUBA diver, and is currently working on his Rotor (Helicopter) pilot’s license.