X-energy

Kam Ghaffarian was born in Iran and immigrated to the United States at 17, earning B.S. degrees from The Catholic University of America and Capitol Technology University, an M.Sc. from The George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in management information systems from Capitol Technology University. He held positions at Lockheed Martin, Ford Aerospace, and Loral before founding Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies in 1994, which became NASA's second-largest engineering services contractor with over $500 million in annual revenue before being acquired by KBR for $355 million in 2018. Ghaffarian founded X-energy in 2009 to design high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed small modular reactors, and also co-founded Intuitive Machines and Quantum Space.