Growing up in Senegal and Paris, Aicha Evans dreamed of becoming a technologist who would impact the world. Now, Ms. Evans, B.S. ’96, an alumna of the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named on the Forbes 50 Over 50 list for her work at the helm of an autonomous vehicle company, recently purchased by Amazon for $1.2 billion.
Forbes magazine says the list highlights “50 diverse women over the age of 50 who have achieved significant success later in life, by overcoming formidable odds or barriers.”
In 2019, after more than a decade of working at Intel, Ms. Evans was tapped as the CEO of Zoox, a self-driving startup company with a mission to provide safe, clean and enjoyable transportation to the world.
Founded in 2014, Zoox has been testing its autonomous vehicles, commonly referred to as robotaxis, in Las Vegas and San Francisco, and for the past two years Ms. Evans has been leading the company’s efforts to expand.
Last year, she led the company sale to Amazon, who purchased Zoox for $1.2 billion.
Ms. Evans said the acquisition solidified Zoox’s impact on the autonomous driving industry and gives the world a “greater opportunity to realize a fully autonomous future,” in a blog post.
"When you're a young girl from Senegal and you end up sitting in my shoes, impact and meaning is very important," Ms. Evans said in a previous interview with Business Insider.
Before joining Zoox, Ms. Evans, who studied computer engineering at GW, worked for several tech companies, including Intel, where she worked for 12 years. There, she served as the general manager of the communications and devices groups before being promoted senior vice president and chief strategy officer.
She remains an executive at Zoox.
