A doctor, a ballerina, a pilot and the founder of a company walk into The Freshwater Trust (TFT). And the punch line is that they’re all the same person.
Dr. Sara Spangelo is the CEO and co-founder of Swarm Technologies, the company that is developing the world’s lowest-cost global communications network with breakthrough satellite technology and ground hardware for customers in remote locations. Before founding Swarm, Sara worked on small satellites and autonomous aircraft at the University of Michigan and was a lead systems engineer at both NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and Google X. Her expertise is in modeling and optimizing satellite constellations to maximize impact and business opportunities. Sara holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and in 2017 was a Top 32 Canadian astronaut candidate. In addition, Sara supports TFT on our Board of Directors. TFT’s Director of Communications Haley Walker had the opportunity to speak recently with Sara about her background and why she’s interested in TFT.
Tell me a little about yourself. Where’d you grow up?
I grew up in Canada, and both my parents were civil engineers. My dad worked for Manitoba Hydro, and my mom worked for water resources. I suppose you could say that water was always a part of our lives. I distinctly remember a huge flood in 1999 in Winnipeg. We had a levee to protect the city, but a lot of the communities still flooded. Growing up with my dad in hydro and then this event made me think a lot about the power of water to bring power but also to destroy.
