Next Ideas

Space Exploration

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX.

Under her leadership as president and chief operating officer, SpaceX has signed some 50 launch contracts worth almost $5 billion, including a deal to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017.

Cybersecurity

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike.

Kurtz founded a startup that neutralizes digital threats to businesses using cloud computing rather than on-site servers. That allows a faster response to cyberattacks.

Tech Diversity

Laura Weidman Powers, Code 2040.

Her nonprofit helps place black and Latino engineers in internships at companies like Google and Apple, while also training thousands of students in interview and networking techniques. The organization plans to double the size of its programs in 2016.

Manufacturing

Greg Morris, General Electric.

He heads GE’s additive-development center, which is building fuel nozzles for a fleet of Airbus jet engines using 3-D printing. The new technique will make the nozzles lighter, increasing fuel efficiency, as well as more durable, cutting repair costs.

–Victor Luckerson