Anousheh Ansari (born September 12, 1966, in Mashhad, Iran) is an Iranian-American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. In 2001 in a stock-for-stock transaction for 10.8 million shares of Sonus stock. Anousheh Ansari became “a vice president of Sonus and general manager of Sonus’ new INtelligentIP division.”In 2006, she co-founded Prodea Systems, and is the current chairman and CEO. Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space traveler, and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station.