Furqan Nazeeri
Furqan Nazeeri believes that joining the solar car team in the fall of 1990 is one of the best decisions he has made in his lifetime. Nazeeri was able to see the first Michigan team win the inaugural Sunrayce USA in 1990. Afterwards, he became a part of the “Maize & Blue” generation, working for three years to build a competitive solar car as the Project Manager, and leading the team to a victory in the 1993 Sunrayce.
Beginning his career as an engineer, Furqan was also the project manager of REVA, one of the world’s largest dealers of electric passenger vehicles. With more than 15 years of experience building and managing high growth software companies, Furqan is currently a Partner at the extensionEngine. In addition to being the founder or co-founder of three high-tech startups, Furqan gave a speech at the Center For Entrepreneurship discussing his success in entrepreneurship and it’s correlation with being on the solar car team.
Maize & Blue crossing the finish line of the 1993 Sunrayce.
One of his favorite memories was when the team crossed the finish line of Sunrayce 1993. Furqan declared, “Three years earlier I had seen pictures of the 1990 team doing the same thing as they won GM Sunrayce USA. In the time between, I had obsessed almost every hour of every day about how to achieve that same feat. Giving so much to achieve a goal and to actually reach it was amazing.”
When thinking back about solar car, Furqan misses his teammates more than anything else. He stated, “Never before and never since have I been able to be part of a team that is both so talented and so committed. That sounds like a crazy way to describe a group of 20-somethings, but it’s true.”
But overall, Furqan cannot be more proud of the current 2011 team. Still involved with the team as one of our top supporters, he believes that within the 20 years of solar car racing he has seen, the 2011 Michigan team is the best yet.
Two members putting on the canopy to Maize & Blue, which is much wider than Quantum's.
An old team photo from Furqan's time with the team.
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