WorldSpace
Samara, at the age of 34, became the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the internationally known and now bankrupt WorldSpace Corporation.
Samara has served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and the Director of the Company since the inception of WorldSpace. A veteran of the satellite industry, Mr. Samara has been an advisor to numerous global telecommunications and broadcasting organizations over the years, on a wide range of business and regulatory issues. He has published articles in the fields of satellite communications and broadcasting. Mr. Samara holds a MS Degree in International Business Diplomacy from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University School of Law. He has also received numerous awards from governments and institutions specifically for his work with WorldSpace.
Samara once told the graduates of East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania at a commencement ceremony:
In the mid-1980s, I read something that changed my life. It was an article in the Washington Post about AIDS in Africa and how it was spreading because millions of people had no information or the wrong information.It became clear to me that people weren’t simply dying of disease; they were dying of ignorance.Something had to be done. I came up with the idea of launching a satellite over Africa that would broadcast digital radio across the continent to inexpensive portable receivers. In 1990, I quit my job and devoted my body, mind and spirit to a quest that required securing international regulatory approval from 127 countries, designing a new communications system, building and launching satellites, establishing a corporation, hiring staff and raising capital to pay for it all. We needed around $1.5 billion to make it happen.
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