Sita Sonty is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center and the chief executive officer of Space Tango, a microgravity service provider to the US government. Sonty manages the implementation of Space Tango’s corporate mission and vision. Previously, Sonty led the space industry practice for the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. She was also previously the head of human spaceflight sales at SpaceX, where she executed the first private spaceflight sales on the Crew Dragon on a Lower Earth Orbit Free Flyer and to the International Space Station. Sonty concurrently guided global market strategy for Starlink’s expansion as the next-generation telecommunications market offering, negotiating deals with telcos and developing market entry strategy.

As vice president for international business with the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Sonty directed business review teams on international defense and space sales pursuits, including capture management, risk mitigation, product design, and areas of legal, tax, finance, supply chain, and engineering. A director for national security, Sonty led Raytheon’s corporate engagement with US executive branch agencies and ensured the corporation’s compliance with legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks for multiple governments. She also led growth as country lead for Raytheon in Israel. Sonty amassed over seventeen years of service as a career US diplomat. She led the International Security Advisory Board bringing A&D companies’ strategic recommendations to then US Secretary of State John Kerry; she also served as chief of staff for legislative affairs and senior advisor for defense sales to South and Central Asia. Her overseas posts include Croatia, Libya, Syria, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and Egypt.

Sonty graduated with distinction from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, studied at Jussieu in Paris and the Centre des Etudes Maghrebienne en Tunisie, and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in political science and economics. Her native tongue is Telugu; she also speaks Hindi, French, Arabic, Croatian, and Urdu. She serves as an executive board member for Women in Aerospace, on the Johns Hopkins University President’s Alumni Council, and with the Washington Leadership Program.