Q&A with Ali Reza Manouchehri, Winter Commencement 2025 Speaker

MetroStarco-founder and chief executive officer Ali Manouchehri, BA Philosophy '99, is the featured speaker at George Mason University's Winter Commencement on December 18. Here he talks about his George Mason experience, his company's partnership with the university, and his advice for new graduates.

Are there any lessons or experiences from your time at George Mason that inform your life (work or otherwise) today?

The most important experience George Mason provided was the opportunity to meet my co-founders. Robert [Santos] and I met as roommates at Mason and quickly developed a bond through our shared classes and curiosity. We came of age during the early days of the dot-com boom, where the spirit of experimentation, invention, and resilience shaped our thinking. Our time at George Mason gave us more than a degree,it gave us a launchpad.

Mason's environment was rich with diverse people and perspectives. We were fortunate to learn from outstanding professors across the humanities and business, which helped shape the holistic thinking behind MetroStar. Associate Professor Rose Cherubinwas a major influence; I took every course she offered. Her way of unlocking creativity through logic, philosophy, and storytelling helped influence the foundation of how I view problem-solving, leadership, and innovation today.

What George Mason truly offered us was the ability to customize our education and blend disciplines. That cross-pollination of thought, from engineering to philosophy to business, became a core trait of MetroStar'sculture and is something I carry forward every day.

Can you share a favorite George Mason memory?

One of my favoriteand most pivotal memories was how Rob and I became roommates. At the time, I was living with a wrestler, and my suitemates were also on the wrestling team. Rob was living with a new wrestling recruit. One day, my roommate Ben asked me to speak with Coach [Brian] Shaffer, next thing I know, I moved downstairs, the wrestling recruit moved upstairs, and Rob and I ended up as roommates.

That move changed everything. We bonded quickly, exchanged ideas constantly, and soon began building what would later become MetroStar. That memory reminds me how spontaneous connections can become life-changing partnerships. It's also a perfect metaphor for what we want to recreate with our partnership, bringing students from different disciplines together to spark the unexpected.

MetroStar'spartnershipwith George Mason offers some incredible opportunities for our students. Please speak about your inspiration to enter into the partnership, and what you look forward to most in working with the College of Engineering and Computing and the Costello College of Business.

The inspiration behind this partnership is deeply personal. When we founded MetroStar, Rob was in the business school, I was studying humanities, and our third co-founder, Pirooz Javan, BS Systems Engineering '02, was a computer science major. The DNA of MetroStarwas born out of these intersections-engineering, creativity, and business.

In many ways, this partnership is our opportunity to give back and pay it forward. We've always found ways to stay engaged with Mason, through internships, sponsored courses, events, and hackathons, even when we were bootstrapped and building. But this three-year partnership is different. It brings two decades of lived experience, lessons, and growth to the forefront.

What excites us most is creating structured opportunities for students to collaborate across disciplines and experience what we once did organically: the power of "accidental collisions." We hope to spark those chance meetings, innovative projects, and unexpected friendships that can turn into start-ups, solutions, and careers.

What do graduates need to know about harnessing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) regardless of their field, and how do you see AI impacting the job market?

AI isn't just a tool,it's a mindset shift. It's changing how we approach problems, unlock creativity, and imagine what's possible. Whether you're in health care, the arts, business, or public service, the ability to understand and thoughtfully apply AI will become foundational to your career. You don't need to be a machine learning expert to harness its power, but you do need to be curious, adaptable, and willing to engage with it meaningfully. 

One of the most important new skills is learning how to promptAI, how to ask the right questions, frame the right challenges, and steer the outputs in useful directions. Prompting is quickly becoming a core competency, both personally and professionally. Knowing how to effectively communicate with AI, whether it's for brainstorming, writing, analysis, or planning is like having a new kind of literacy that will only grow more essential. 

What AI does best is free us to focus on what makes us uniquely human: creativity, judgment, empathy, reasoning, and innovation. The future won't be AI vs. Humans: it will be AI +Humans. The people who learn how to integrate AI into their workflows, whether to make faster decisions, personalize experiences, or generate new ideas, will have an edge. 

You've stayed involved at the university in various capacities. How is it mutually beneficial for George Mason alumni to stay engaged with their alma mater?

Staying connected to George Mason is like plugging back into the source of your original spark. 

When alumni engage, whether by mentoring students, guest lecturing, sponsoring events, or collaborating onresearch, they're not just giving back. They're staying sharp. They're reconnecting with fresh perspectives, new ideas, and the energy that comes from being around passionate, hungry students. 

It's a two-way street. Students gain real-world insight and inspiration; alumni get renewed purpose and fresh perspective. What has always made George Mason special is the diversity of thinking across disciplines of business, engineering, humanities, and sciences and how that fuels creative problem-solving. The more we stay connected, the stronger that ecosystem becomes, and the more meaningful innovation takes root and grows beyond the classroom.  

Finally, if you could offer any advice to a George Mason student, what would it be?

My advice is simple: Stay curious and mix it up. If you're studying AI, take a philosophy course, maybe even one on pre-Socratic thinkers. If you're an engineer, take a business class. If you're a business major, dive into the humanitiesor computer science.

Some of the greatest breakthroughs come from the intersection of disciplines. Don't just follow a linear path. Explore. Take electives that challenge your thinking and expand your worldview. Meet people outsideyour major. Mason today offers more opportunities and resources than we ever had, so maximize them. This university is full of goodness-you just have tostay curious enough to discover it.