There are many people out there who have multifaceted interests, however, Reema Khan takes it to a whole new level. She navigates Venture Capital, Philanthropy, and STEM Advocacy with a unique and distinctive flair that is unmistakably her own.
Focused on values of equity and curiosity, Green Sands’ vision is much bigger than a VC firm in scope and ambition. Unlike the prevalent trend where VC firms predominantly align with a founder-centric model, Green Sands places emphasis on a worldview.
A modern Renaissance woman, Reema effortlessly traverses leadership in STEM for women’s advocacy, government advisory, philanthropy, and venture capital investment. She founded Green Sands Equity in 2017 and is currently based in the Green Sands Silicon Valley office. Investing in Space, Technology, Healthcare, and Frontier Tech, Green Sands boasts a portfolio of iconic companies like Spotify, SpaceX, Airbnb, Commure, ArsenalBio, and Synchron. Green Sands was recognized by Fortune Magazine in 2022 as one of the top 11 investors in Healthcare. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Green Sands has offices in Zurich, Doha, Dubai, Singapore, and New York.
Reema also specializes in strategic advisory for governments in their branding for Foreign Direct Investment. Green Sands’ vast political and diplomatic network makes the company one of the top strategy advisors to governments. With a formidable team spanning leaders in finance, like the President and CEO of Julius Baer Group, a unicorn entrepreneur, and a trailblazing NASA scientist, Green Sands has the DNA of an Entrepreneur, Scientist, Investor, Strategist, and Diplomat.
Green Sands and Beyond
As a Member of the Board of Trustees and Chairwoman of the Endowment Committee of the SETI Institute, Reema is dedicated to advancing scientific research and outreach. The SETI Institute is a scientific organization, substantially funded by NASA grants, dedicated to investigating the nature of the universe and the prevalence of life beyond Earth.
As a thought leader, Reema has taught classes at Berkeley Haas School of Business and spoken at the Harvard Club. At Haas, her memorable class focused on the focal issue of the day, AI, but addressed the other side of the coin, “predicting the human response to the age of AI.”
As a Women in Science & Technology Ambassador for the Royal Academy of Science International Trust, Reema helps curate the Women in Science Day Assembly at the United Nations annually, bringing together stakeholders from government, business, and the scientific community to help build partnerships and better policies to advance Women in Science & Technology at all levels.
Changing the World
In a world where leaders declare impact and intention more loudly than the work that follows, Green Sands takes a more subtle approach. As Reema said in her talk at the Harvard Club this past summer, “Sometimes the people who change the world are not on the cover of Forbes magazine, they’re not the ones who have actually built a product that will sell to millions or billions of people, sometimes they’re the people who enabled an advance in technology that allowed many others to build on top of it. That’s what moves me and what drives me, people who are helping enable more innovation rather than just being the one solution.”
True to her statement, Reema and her colleagues at Green Sands are seeking out innovators who are creating ways for others to build upon their innovations, furthering technology, healthcare, and science disruption.
As far as thought leadership, with their Green Sands Global Summits, Reema and her team bring together the movers and shakers of the world to discuss paradigm shifts in tech and biotech as well as the soft power of global diplomacy through business. As Governor Tom Ridge, Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, said at a Green Sands Global Summit, “The United States can have geopolitical influence in three different ways: Military, Diplomacy, and Soft Power of Corporate Engagement. I’m a firm believer in soft power and this is how I met Reema. How we do business elsewhere reflects our values, respect, and our embrace of the cultures of the countries we operate in.”
The philanthropic “Green Sands Prize” strives to engage and encourage individuals or organizations who have a profound impact on the world either through inspiration or aspiration. The Green Sands Inspiration Prize is awarded to trailblazers who have the courage to go first and take on risks and personal responsibility to open a path for others to follow. The first Green Sands Inspiration Prize was awarded to Gwynne Shotwell in 2023 for her contributions to the Space Industry & STEM.
Additionally, the Green Sands Aspiration Prize provides both a financial grant and partnership to advance the work of the chosen individual or organization. In 2021, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett was the Honoree of the Green Sands Aspiration Prize. The vaccine concept incorporated in the mRNA-1273 was designed by the NIH team under Dr. Corbett’s leadership. In an unprecedented 66 days, her team released the viral sequence which was rapidly deployed to Moderna, Inc., and later was shown to be 94.1% effective and was authorized for use in multiple countries.
Reema believes strongly in the transformative power of venture investment when aligned with the cultural readiness of society, expediting the evolution of policy. ‘We are not just creators of wealth,” she said in one Green Sands Global Summit keynote. “Investment is a serious responsibility of being builders. When working with sovereign wealth funds and large family offices, the motivation for investment is not always a fast financial return — it is a strategic investment into a country’s future, it is an opportunity to explore a sector.’ “We build on the work of many that came before us and many will build upon our work, so let’s worry less about making our mark, and focus more on making a contribution.”
Reema has no intention of slowing down in pursuing her dreams. “We want to build the foundational blocks for others to build upon,” she explains. By investing in groundbreakers, disruptors, and forward-thinking innovators, Reema and Green Sands are forging new paths for innovation and a fertile ground for positive change.
Published By: Aize Perez
