Mary Ann Beyster

A San Diego native, Beyster earned her undergraduate degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. After graduating, Beyster consulted at SRI International and CH2M Hill for 10 years before joining her father, J. Robert Beyster, at SAIC, the employee-owned research and engineering firm he founded. In 2005, she was appointed president of FED, a nonprofit organization also founded by the elder Beyster, which promotes a culture of employee-driven innovation and shared ownership at small science and technology companies. Through FED, Beyster and her family have funded a multidisciplinary fellowship program for research on shared ownership and innovation at Rutgers University. An avid outdoorswoman, she likes to swim, bike, and hike. She serves on the board of the Nature Conservancy in California, the advisory board of the La Jolla Music Society, and Sloan’s North American Executive Board.