Mani Thiru

APJC Space Business Development Lead

Aerospace & Satellite Solutions
Amazon Web Services

As the APJC Business Development Lead within the Aerospace & Satellite Solutions team at Amazon Web Services, Mani works to enable the space industry to achieve its most ambitious goals through the power of cloud. She is passionate about leveraging AWS Cloud and transformative services like machine learning, artificial intelligence, high performance computing, satellites & data analytics to improve every aspect of the space enterprise and mission. This entails building innovative partnerships and vibrant connections across private enterprises, public agencies, R&D institutions and start-ups both locally and internationally to deliver outcomes in a range of areas from space enabled agriculture and emergency & disaster management through to defence space, space exploration and small sat research. In Australia, Mani currently serves on the SmartSat CRC’s Artificial Intelligence for Space Board – SmartSat CRC is the largest space industry-research collaboration in Australia. Mani also advises the Queensland Government’s Space Industry Reference Group on matters pertaining to the growth of the state’s growth industry. And she is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce Space Committee - supporting the development of a vibrant Australian space sector that promotes innovation and delivers best practice for the broader community. Mani has a Bachelor’s in Physiology, Post-grad in Business with Technology, Masters in International Relations and is an active member of Stanford University alumni. She is outspoken on the power of technology (and STEM) as a societal game changer and the significance of the space industry to the well being and prosperity of the next generation. She thrives on the fundamental belief that a collaborative, ecosystem approach encompassing diversity and inclusion in space leadership is not only foundational for good people practices in organizations, but vital when tackling new policy developments around the access and contestability of space, civil dialogue on planetary protection, and the ethics of space debris and sustainability.