We are pleased to invite you to attend the ninth Committee of 100 Conversations – “Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes” event that will feature Leroy Chiao, Former NASA Astronaut and Co-founder and CEO, OneOrbit, whose career has been defined by exceptional achievement as an Astronaut, a business leader, educator, and his dedication to community service.

Dr. Leroy Chiao is a Chinese American NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander and the CEO of OneOrbit. He has worked extensively in both government and commercial space programs, and has held leadership positions in commercial ventures and NASA. Chiao has extensive experience as a NASA Astronaut and prior to that, as a Research Engineer. Dr. Chiao is a fellow of the Explorers Club, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the Committee of 100.

Chinese Americans have contributed greatly to advance the success of this country in many walks of life – science, the arts, agriculture, philanthropy, political leadership, achitecture, business, and more.

This Committee of 100 Conversations program features interviews of Chinese Americans who have contributed to the success of America through their pioneering efforts, heroic achievements, or recollections of important events. Each interview will feature a live broadcast. The video and podcast recordings of the interview will be made available as part of a library of the interviews.

Peter Young, Committee of 100 Member and Board Member and Chair of the Conversations Program will moderate. The broadcast will be on January 13 from 6 pm Eastern Time to 6:45 pm Eastern Time. There is no fee for the webcast. Please register at https://c100-1-13-2026.eventbrite.com. The video recording and podcast will be published thereafter and will be available on the Committee of 100 website.

We hope you will join us. Thank you!

Best regards,
Committee of 100

Committee of 100 Conversations
Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes

January 13, 2026 Webcast

▦ Speaker

Leroy Chiao, Ph.D.

NASA Astronaut

Co-founder and CEO, OneOrbit

▦ Moderator:

Peter Young, CEO, Young & Partners

Committee of 100 Member and Board Member
Chair of the Committee of 100 Conversations Program

▦ Time:

6:00 pm Eastern Time

The interview will be moderated by Peter Young, Committee of 100 member and Chair of the Committee of 100 Conversations Program. The broadcast will be 45 minutes long.

There is no fee and you can register at: https://c100-1-13-2026.eventbrite.com.

▦ Speaker Bios:

Leroy Chiao, Ph.D.

NASA Astronaut

Co-founder and CEO, OneOrbit

Leroy Chiao works in business and consulting, is an active international speaker, and participates in various education programs. Dr. Chiao is a co-founder and the CEO of OneOrbit, providing keynotes and training to companies and schools. He also serves as a co-founder and advisor of Black Moon, a commercial lunar data and energy startup. In addition, Dr. Chiao is an Adjunct Professor at Rice University, and in the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), and is also a special advisor to the Houston Association for Space and Science Education (HASSE).

In 2012, Dr. Chiao became a Director and the CEO of Diomics Corporation, a bio-materials company. He led the company through technology and product development, business development, testing/validation phases, and corporate governance restructuring. Having brought the company through its startup phase at the end of 2013, Chiao transitioned the chief executive position and served an additional two years as an advisor to the Board of Directors.

From 2017-2018, Dr. Chiao served on the Planetary Protection Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. In June 2009, Dr. Chiao was invited to be a member of the White House appointed Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. The committee reviewed NASA’s plans for human space exploration and formulated options for the administration. He served on the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Ops. cmte, (2009-2020) and is the Special Advisor for Human Spaceflight to the Houston Association for Space and Science Education (HASSE). He also served in a similar role to the Space Foundation from 2012-2016.

Chiao was the first Raborn Distinguished Chair Max Faget Mechanical Engineering Professor at Louisiana State University. He served in that capacity from August 2006 through June 2008, in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He also previously served as the VP and Advisor for Space and Medical for Epiphan Systems (2012-2017) and as the Executive VP of Technical Operations for Excalibur Almaz, a commercial spaceflight company from 2006-2012. In addition, Dr. Chiao held appointments in Rice University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering from 2012-2021.

Dr. Chiao served as a NASA astronaut from 1990-2005. He flew four space missions, serving aboard three Space Shuttles and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He also served as the commander and NASA science officer of Expedition 10, aboard the International Space Station. During his NASA career, Chiao served in several leadership and management roles, including branch chief.

Dr. Chiao earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1987, from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and joined Hexcel Corporation. There, he was involved in process, manufacturing, and engineering research on advanced aerospace materials. He worked on a joint NASA-JPL/Hexcel project to develop an optically correct, polymer composite precision segment reflector for future space telescopes. He also worked on cure modeling and finite element analysis. In January of 1989 Dr. Chiao joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, where he was involved in processing research for fabrication of filament-wound and thick-section aerospace composites. While at LLNL, he developed and demonstrated a mechanistic cure model for graphite fiber/epoxy composite material. An instrument-rated pilot, Dr. Chiao has logged 3000 flight hours in a variety of aircraft and spacecraft.

▦ Moderator and Chair of the Committee of 100 Conversations Program

Peter Young

CEO, Young & Partners

Committee of 100 Member and Board Member

Chair of the Committee of 100 Conversations Program

Peter Young is CEO of Young & Partners, a boutique investment banking firm focused on the life science and chemical industries. He manages the firm and is actively involved in client transactions and financings. Under his leadership, Young & Partners has established and maintained its position as a highly regarded firm serving the corporate strategy, M&A, restructuring and financing needs of clients worldwide. He was previously head of industry groups at Salomon Brothers, Schroders and Lehman Brothers, a senior private equity executive with J.H. Whitney & Co. and a senior member of Bain & Co., the corporate strategy firm.

Mr. Young received a BA in Economics from Yale, an MS in Accounting from NYU, and MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated with Distinction as a Baker Scholar. He is a CPA and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He serves on a number of boards of directors, both corporate and non-profit and is President and a board member of Société de Chimie Industrielle, a leading life science and chemical industry non-profit organization and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Pharmaceutical Executive.

The Committee of 100

The Committee of 100 (C100) is a non-profit, non-partisan leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, and the arts founded 36 years ago.

The Committee’s purpose is to provide leadership and act as a constructive force in the dual mission of:

• Promoting the full participation of all Chinese Americans in American society and acting as a public policy resource for the Chinese-American community
• Advancing constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples and leaders of the United States and Greater China

To learn more about the organization, please go to https://www.committee100.org.

COMMITTEE OF 100 | Ensuring Full Inclusion in America, Advancing U.S.-China Relations
Mailing: Committee of 100, 28 West 44th Street, Suite 1014, New York, NY 10036

T: (212) 371-6565