Washington, D.C. public relations and public affairs veteran to provide in-house strategy regarding key national and international constituencies for multiple industries
SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 7, 2007 – The X PRIZE Foundation, an educational nonprofit prize institute created to foster radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, today announced the appointment ofDonald J. Foley as Senior Director, Automotive X PRIZE (AXP) and general manager of its Washington, D.C. operations.
Working from Washington, Foley will advise the X PRIZE Foundation’s communications, marketing and government relations efforts on current and planned competitions. His immediate responsibilities will focus on the Automotive X PRIZE, a competition designed to award a multi-million dollar purse to the teams that win a stage race for clean, super-efficient and production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon or its equivalent.
"Don Foley is a veteran communications expert with extensive experience in national politics and corporate affairs," said Tom Vander Ark, President of the X PRIZE Foundation. "One of the hallmarks of the X PRIZE Foundation is to bring together specialists and experts in a wide variety of fields and we’re pleased to now have Don as a key member of our team."
In draft guidelines released in April, the AXP outlined an independent competition that will result in clean, efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change. The AXP invited interested teams – major auto companies and innovators alike – to execute letters of intent to participate in the planned competition.
"Don’s understanding of how the political, policy, communications and corporate worlds are intertwined, combined with his passion for AXP’s success, will be invaluable ingredients in launching prizes intended to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity," said Mark Goodstein, Executive Director of the Automotive X PRIZE.
Foley will join the Washington-based John Shore, Senior Director AXP. Shore joined the AXP at its inception with a mix of scientific, engineering, business, and political experience.

ABOUT DONALD J. FOLEY

Foley was a founding partner of Prism Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C. based public relations firm. With more than 20 years of experience on Capitol Hill in both the U.S. House and Senate, Foley also served as Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and was the convention manager of the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Foley is a former Vice President for Worldwide Corporate Communications at Northwest Airlines and has assisted several corporations and non-profits in their Washington communications needs through his public affairs agency work.

ABOUT THE AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE

The goal of the Automotive X PRIZE (AXP) is to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change. The multi-million dollar AXP purse will be awarded to the teams that win a stage race for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon equivalent fuel economy. For more information please visit auto.xprize.org or email autoprize@xprize.org.

ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION

The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. On October 4, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured world headlines when Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan and Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private vehicle to space twice in two weeks to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since expanded its mission beyond space exploration to offer new prizes for breakthroughs in the life sciences, energy and the environment, education and global entrepreneurship. In October of 2006, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for genomics, which will reward the first private effort to map 100 human genomes in 10 days ushering in a new era of personalized preventative medicine. For more information please visit www.xprize.org or email us.