Advisory Board
Iris Fujiura
Managing Director
Golden Seeds
Iris Fujiura on LinkedIn
Iris Fujiura is a Managing Director for Golden Seeds, a National Angel Investing organization that invests in women-led companies. She is Chapter Chair in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area.
Fujiura (FKA Bombelyn) retired after 33 years working in space launch vehicles and spacecraft. As an executive at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, she was a committed supporter of Diversity and Inclusion. She has been recognized multiple times by STEM and industry organizations for her leadership. 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 create integrated 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. 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.
Fujiura has a BS in Engineering from Washington State University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan Fellows program.
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
