Ian Wright

Ian Wright has never been a victim of the ‘tall poppy syndrome.’ He pursued a degree in electrical engineering, and before he’d even graduated, was snapped up by US company and made a home for himself in Silicon Valley. He became Senior Director EngNet and then a Director at Cisco Systems before taking up the role of CTO at Altamar Networks. 

Ian capitalized on his knowledge of cars, helping to found the high-performance electric car company, Tesla Motors – becoming its first employee, and Vice President of Vehicle Development. He broke away in 2004 and created the fastest street legal electric car in the world. 

Since then, Ian founded Wrightspeed Inc to create the world’s most efficient range-extended electric vehicle powertrains, as part of his quest to solve Equivalent Variation (EV) economics. 

Over the past two decades, Ian has emerged as one of the leading minds of the electric transportation era. In 2015, he won the Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum Award and the Bronze Power Generation Edison Award for his work, and in 2016, he was also acknowledged as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

Watch Ian Wright accept his award here.