It’s Not Rocket Science

“The Game Changer Tribe”

Born in Syracuse, New York, Mary Spio was raised in Ghana. She grew up poor during a period of severe political and civil unrest. Wanting a better life, she convinced her parents to let her return to the United States alone at age 16. After finishing high school in South Carolina, she left her host family, moved to Brooklyn and began working at McDonald’s. At 17, she enlisted in the US Air Force, which opened her eyes to a larger world. After her military service, she pursued graduate work in deep-space communications at Georgia Tech, eventually becoming an engineer at Boeing and later starting her own virtual reality company.

At Boeing, Spio invented a new process that Lucasfilm and other studios used to distribute movies digitally. Though Boeing owns the patent, it bears her name. She developed technologies for real-time streaming and for creating alternate endings for films and TV shows. She founded the virtual reality company Gen2Media – now called Vidaroo – and is now president and CEO of Next Galaxy, a virtual reality and digital media firm. The US State Department enlisted her to speak on innovation in such diverse places...