Serial Entrepreneur, Pilot, Author, Attorney, Inventor, CEO, Humanitarian, Transgender woman – she is the most important woman you have never heard of.
Undoubtedly, one of the most successful personalities of our time, Martine Rothblatt is leaving a legacy of incredible achievements in her wake, and yet may be unknown to many of my readers. My objective in this article is not to tell her story – that would be impossible to do in 3-Minutes. Instead, I will outline her compelling, fascinating, and unbelievably productive life while providing links to videos and websites where you may explore her dynamic personality at your leisure. FACT: In 2013, Rothblatt was the highest-paid woman CEO in America, earning $38 million.
Early Life and Education
Born as Martin Rothblatt in Chicago in 1954 he was raised in San Diego, CA. After attending college for two years, Martin dropped out of school and traveled to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Seychelles during the summer of 1974. It was in the Seychelles that he first began to consider the possibility of uniting the world through satellite communications. Returning to Los Angeles to study at UCLA, Rothblatt graduated summa cum laude in communication studies and then went on to attain his J.D./M.B.A., graduating in 1981. From there, he went to the University of Maryland to study Astronomy.
Satellites
While at the University of Maryland, Martin was retained by NASA to obtain approval from the Federal Communications Commission for satellite communications.
He followed that assignment by becoming CEO of Geostar Corporation, a satellite communications company. In 1990 he launched Sirius Satellite Radio, the world’s first satellite-to-car communication system.
Forbes profiled Rothblatt earlier this year. Take a quick look. Some highlights of that piece:
- Martine Rothblatt co-founded Sirius Satellite Radio in 1990 but left soon after the company’s 1993 IPO.
- Rothblatt moved into biotech after her daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease that was deadly at the time.
- She founded United Therapeutics in 1996; it sells five FDA-approved drugs to help people with the disease.
- The publicly traded company is experimenting with pig cloning and genetic modification to create lung transplants the human body doesn’t reject.
- The company’s pig ‘pharm’ in Blacksburg, Virginia is the world’s largest cloner of pigs.
1996 Was a Busy Year
Rothblatt sold his stock in Sirius in 1996 and started United Therapeutics, a medical research firm focusing on a life-threatening condition that afflicted his daughter, pulmonary hypertension. He also made the transition to female that same year. This TED Talk video is captivating and informative. Rothblatt’s new company leads the medical field today in the creation of new techniques for life-extending opportunities through lung transplants. Her stated goal is to be able to 3D print lungs for transplanting. At that time she also began studying for a Ph.D. in medical ethics at the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. The degree was granted in June 2001.
Aviation Becomes a Necessity for Her
The Beta Technology Alia
The need to rapidly deliver organs to patients needing a transplant led Martine Rothblatt to aviation. She became a helicopter and fixed-wing pilot and has a position on the Board of Directors at the leading electric aviation company, Beta Technologies. You can see Martine in action in the Alia electric aircraft pictured above by going here.
Rothblatt is licensed to fly both the Bell 429 WKG Helicopter and the Pilatus PC-12NG Turboprop
The Harvard Business School recently profiled Martine also.
Awards and Honors
Martine Rothblatt’s contributions to society have not gone unnoticed. Here is a list of Honors and Awards she has received:
April 2008, Rothblatt was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society.
May 11, 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ben Gurion University of the Negev in recognition of her accomplishments in satellite communications and biotechnology.
September 2017 Forbes magazine named Rothblatt one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds of the past century, with special reference to her roles as a “perpetual reinventor, founder of Sirius and United Therapeutics, and creator of PanAmSat.”
December 5, 2017, North Carolina State University conferred her an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree.
January 2018 Rothblatt was presented the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest award, in recognition of her creation of Sirius XM satellite radio, advancing organ transplant technology, and having “expanded the way we understand fundamental concepts ranging from communication to gender to the nature of consciousness and mortality.”
May 16, 2018, Rothblatt and Didi Chuxing President Jean Liu were awarded Doctors of Commercial Science degrees, honoris causa, at NYU’s 186th Commencement at Yankee Stadium.
2018, the University of Victoria’s Chair in Transgender Studies, Founder and subject matter expert of the Transgender Archives, nominated Martine for an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD).
2018, Rothblatt received the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center Annual Achievement Award for innovation in rotary-wing flight.
2019 Rothblatt was recognized as one of Business Insider‘s most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech. Also in 2019, Rothblatt received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Sir Peter Jackson during the International Achievement Summit in New York City.
2019, she received the inaugural UP Leadership Award for her advances in eVTOL technology.
October 2021, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) selected Dr. Rothblatt for its highest honor, the Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, for her fostering of aviation weather information on the flight deck and of advanced air mobility such as electric helicopters.
April 2023, Rothblatt received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences in recognition of her many transformative, diverse, singular scientific and public service contributions.
Martine is truly a special person, deserving of recognition from her peers and these fine organizations. What makes her tick? I believe we can gain some insight from this quote:
“I’m a person who likes to hear why something can’t be done and I’ll whittle down every one of the can’ts one at a time.“
Martine Rothblatt
Rick
VERY INTERESTING!