CEO, Makani

Biography

Dr. Fort Felker is the CEO of Makani, a technology company creating kites that efficiently harness energy from the wind. He was previously the Director of the National Wind Technology Center at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Felker has been leading aerospace and wind energy research and product development teams for over 30 years, including pioneering work on variable-speed wind turbines at Kenetech Windpower and on tiltrotor aircraft at NASA's Ames Research Center. He has founded and led multiple startups. Fort is the author of 30 scientific publications, and several patents. He holds a bachelor's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Fort was awarded both the James Means and Luis de Florez prizes at MIT, and the Dryden Science Fellowship while at NASA.