Martine Rothblatt

Dr. Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and has served as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Previously, she created the satellite radio company SiriusXM. She is an inventor or co-inventor on nine U.S. patents, with additional applications pending.

Forbes magazine named Rothblatt to their "50 Over 50" and "America's Self-Made Women" lists in 2023.

Her pioneering book, "Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Private and Public Interests in Xenotransplantation," anticipated the need both for global virus bio-surveillance and a greatly expanded supply of transplantable organs. Dr. Rothblatt has also analyzed the socio-ethical issues of human-like cyber competencies, as are emerging from large language models, in her 2014 book "Virtually Human."

After graduating from UCLA with law and MBA degrees, Rothblatt served as President & CEO of Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill’s satellite navigation company, Geostar. The satellite system she launched in 1986 continues to operate today, providing service to certain government agencies. She also created Sirius Satellite Radio in 1990, serving as its Chairman and CEO.

In the years that followed, Rothblatt’s daughter would be diagnosed with life-threatening pulmonary hypertension. Determined to find a cure, she left the communications business and entered the world of medical biotechnology. She earned her Ph.D. in medical ethics at the Royal London College of Medicine & Dentistry and founded the United Therapeutics Corporation in 1996. The company focuses on the development and commercialization of biotechnology in order to address the unmet medical needs of patients with chronic and life-threatening conditions. Since then, she has become the highest-paid female CEO in America.

In 2004, Rothblatt launched the Terasem Movement, a not-for-profit charity endowed for the purpose of educating the public on the practicality and necessity of greatly extending human life. The group focuses on the possibility of technological immortality through processes such as mind uploading, nanotechnology, and advanced robotics. These topics are explored in-depth in Rothblatt’s 2014 book, "Virtually Human: The Promise – and the Peril – of Digital Immortality," which examines how close we are to achieving a full simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology, also known as cyberconsciousness. The Terasem Movement demonstrated this concept with the construction of BINA48, an intelligent robot based on the personality and appearance of Bina Rothlatt, Rothblatt’s wife. BINA48 was profiled in The New York Times, GQ, WNYC Radio, and other media outlets.

Rothblatt’s public service activities include representing the radio astronomy community in its efforts to secure quiet frequency bands for astrophysical research, developing improved medical ethics for transgender health service providers, and leading the International Bar Association’s effort to provide the United Nations with a Human Genome Treaty. She is also the author of numerous books on communications, bioethics, politics, and transgenderism.