NASEEM MUNSHI was born in Mombasa, Kenya, to immigrant parents from Gujarat, India. She developed a love of the wilderness and an appreciation of the connection between wild places and people while camping near Tsavo National Park and exploring the tidepools of coastal Kenya. She earned a PhD in Polymer Science & Technology from the University of the South Bank in London, UK, and moved to the US in 1983. Munshi has more than 27 years of experience in providing innovative products to commercial and government markets. She has founded two companies that create products in the energy and medical fields, as well as space. At Composite Development Technology, Inc., her desire to craft unique and sustainable solutions leveraging polymeric chemistry led to a portfolio that today represents over 100 unique, commercially-available formulations and solutions that solve challenges in superconducting magnets, high energy physics, aerospace and defense, medical, oil and gas, automotive, maritime, and industrial applications. Munshi also played a key role in the development of solar array products. These products, which are rapidly entering the military expeditionary energy market, have been credited with wider use of solar energy for expeditionary power due to their lightweight, ability to be packaged into very small volumes, and speed of set-up and re-stowing. In 2007, Munshi was acknowledged for her success as an innovator and entrepreneur when she was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Technology in the Rocky Mountain region. She is passionate about conservation and education, believing these to be critical for the preservation of our planet for future generations. She recently volunteered with the Audubon Rowe Sanctuary in support of their critical work on habitat restoration for the million-plus sandhill cranes, whooping cranes, ducks, and geese that migrate through central Nebraska each spring. Munshi has served on the boards of Boulder County Nature Association and the Boulder County Audubon Society, and currently serves on the board of a trust founded by her parents that educates more than 6,000 children per annum from pre-K through grade 12 in her ancestral village in India. Munshi and her husband Mike liv e in Boulder County, Colorado, and raise a large garden with chickens and goats. The y love cooking and sharing food, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, bike riding, and traveling.
