André Borschberg

Roles: Special Guest

André Borschberg is co-founder, CEO and pilot of Solar Impulse, the first airplane capable of flying without fuel. Borschberg, a serial entrepreneur, trained as a pilot in the Swiss air force, and has degrees in mechanics and thermodynamics, as well as a Master in Management Science from MIT. Borschberg led the design and construction of the aircraft and prepared the flight missions resulting in the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe in a solar airplane.

Borschberg’s fighter-pilot past and intimate knowledge of the plane’s engineering make him a natural fit for a mission filled with calculated risk. Navigating the journey’s longest and most dangerous leg—five days and nights alone over the Pacific—André would face the most difficult decision of the project. And perhaps his life.