Mentor Team: Iris Fujiura
- Chapter Chair Emeritus at Golden Seeds, Global Ambassador at Westfield Business College
- Iris Fujiura on LinkedIn
Iris Fujiura mentors and coaches underserved business owners and entrepreneurs through her volunteer work with IFEL, the Institute for Entrepreneurial Learning. IFEL provides opportunities and training for start-ups and small businesses led by first-time and minority founders.
Iris Fujiura is an Ambassador for Westfield Business College, an accredited on-line MBA program that focuses on Latin American and Spanish-language speakers, with on-site visits to the innovation centers in Silicon Valley and Boston for each cohort. She delivers a Leadership class as part of these Field Trips. The program aims to grow ethical, principled business leaders with a mission statement of “People, Planet, Profit”.
Fujiura previously led the Silicon Valley Chapter of Golden Seeds, supporting women entrepreneurs by sourcing and selection of deals for investment, syndication with the National investors in Golden Seeds, partnering with the local investment ecosystem, and providing mentorship and support to female entrepreneurs. Fujiura remains active and connected with Golden Seeds, as well as several other Angel and business groups focused on access to capital and connections for under-represented groups and women.
Fujiura earned a BS in Engineering from Washington State University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan Fellows program. As former Chair of the WSU Harold Frank Advisory Board she mentors students and coordinates support for this entrepreneurship program.
Fujiura (FKA Bombelyn) retired after 33 years working in space launch vehicles and spacecraft. As Program VP, she led a team to deliver a significant Military Space Communications system, the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), garnering recognition by industry in the form of the Aviation Week Program Performance Award.
Fujiura also led the Space Systems Manufacturing Team, developing vision and strategy and practicing continuous communication during a significant industry down-turn. Her ability to have hard conversations focused on positive results was instrumental in maintaining a motivated workforce and delivering excellent product with best practices.
As a change agent, Fujiura has created teams to integrate practices across fragmented and siloed businesses. Her ability to communicate clearly, listen, and prioritize was key to standing up a new organization to share resources and best practices across the country.
Fujiura started her career as an instrumentation engineer working at Vandenberg AFB, CA on the Titan rocket launch team. There, she learned the value of teamwork, practice, and timely decision-making. She certified as lead Instrumentation Engineer and later, Payload Operations Launch Conductor, in her 14 year stint there. Fujiura has extensive technical knowledge of rocket systems including Atlas, Proton and Soyuz. In her later career, her technical expertise focused on communications satellites, both commercial and military.
Fujiura traveled extensively with International Launch Services, a joint Russian-American venture to market and integrate Russian launches for commercial satellites. During her time with ILS, she learned Russian and jiu-jitsu. She says that it is difficult, but worthwhile to tell a joke in a foreign language. She travelled extensively to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Europe, first as a Launch Operations Manager, and later as a Program Director.
Awards:
· Silicon Valley YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry award, 2010
· Asian American Executive of the year, 2012
· Washington State University Alumni Achievement Award, 2012
· Women of Color STEM Career Achievement Award, 2013
· Aviation Week Program Performance Award, 2016