Chief Executive Officer
IQAir North America, Inc.
La Mirada, Calif.
Glory Dolphin Hammes developed a passion for the environment after participating in her first beach clean-up at eight years old. “There is no Planet B,” she recalls thinking. She is now a certified indoor environmentalist and HVAC contractor, serving as chief executive officer for the North American arm of IQAir, a Swiss-based air quality technology firm. She assumed the position as one of the youngest CEOs in America.
Her expertise in air quality has been a key driver of IQAir’s growth in the U.S. The company is now the gold standard for air filtration and air quality monitoring. “Being dedicated to making the world a better place on a daily basis is most fulfilling. Our team created a large air quality data network, which allows us to give people free air quality data to help reduce their exposure to pollution,” she says. She inspired the IQAir Foundation, which provides air quality monitoring and air filtration technology in schools located in the nation’s most polluted communities.
Dolphin Hammes once dreamed of representing the U.S. in the Olympics in track and field. She moved to the former East Germany to train with German Olympic Gold Medalist Heike Drechsler and was fluent in German within eight months of her move. Sports helped shape her work ethic. “When I was training and competing, we didn’t believe in saying ‘I give up’ when things got hard. It’s when things get hard that you have to self-reflect and see how you can do better,” she asserts.
Dolphin Hammes graduated from the Marshall School of Business at University of California, with a major in entrepreneurial studies. Having visited the Grand Canyon six times, she now wants to go to the moon. “How amazing to have a different gravity system and view the universe from a different perspective!”
