Geolocation Pioneers

Mariam Sorond is NextNav’s Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer. She has nearly three decades of experience leading transformational change across mobile, wireless, and satellite networks industries and has held leadership positions within start-ups and large companies. She brings extensive expertise in commercializing technologies that transform companies to increase monetization, with a proven track record of success. This experience is foundational to furthering NextNav’s leadership with 3D geolocation and GPS resiliency. Before joining NextNav as CEO in November 2023, she served as the Chief Technology Officer, SEBU at VMWare, CRDO at CableLabs and Chief Wireless Architect at DISH. She also served on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) and the Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council. Mariam is proud to lead NextNav into a new chapter with the ultimate goal of solving a national security problem. NextNav’s innovative terrestrial PNT technology serves as a complement and backup to traditional GPS services.

Jim Black is NextNav’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, where he leads the company’s legal, compliance, and corporate governance functions. He oversees all legal operations, contracts management, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, and intellectual property strategy while delivering expert counsel on securities law, risk mitigation strategies, and complex corporate transactions. 

With 20 years of legal experience advising public company leadership teams and boards of directors, he is an experienced attorney with valuable in-house counsel expertise. Jim navigates complex legal landscapes while ensuring business decisions align with legal and regulatory requirements, providing clear guidance to executive leadership as NextNav evolves.  

Before joining NextNav, Jim served as the general counsel of Terran Orbital Corporation, where he managed legal operations for the NYSE-listed satellite manufacturer and led the company through its recent sale to Lockheed Martin. His distinguished career also includes serving as the chief legal officer of Nasdaq-listed Osiris Therapeutics and senior legal positions at Ultra Electronics, Osiris Therapeutics, and Northrop Grumman. 

Jim holds a Juris Doctor from the William and Mary School of Law, a Master of Arts in Anthropology from The George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from James Madison University. 

Christian Gates is NextNav’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development, leading the business development team, managing the company’s corporate partnerships, and contributing to its policy outreach efforts. Before joining NextNav, he was VP of Strategy at SkyTerra. Mr. Gates’ background includes a range of telecommunications and technology ventures, after starting his career in finance. Mr. Gates is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

Renee Gregory serves as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, leading NextNav’s regulatory approval process and compliance work with a major focus on securing FCC approvals essential to NextNav’s mission to provide a robust terrestrial complement and backup to GPS. In this role, she drives a comprehensive regulatory strategy in close coordination with team members across the organization and key external partners and stakeholders.

Her federal experience includes serving as Senior Policy Advisor for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and key advisory roles at both the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Federal Communications Commission. In the private sector, she held leadership positions at Google and prominent international law firms, where she advised technology and telecommunications clients. Her expertise centers on navigating the complex interplay of business strategy, technology, regulatory and policy frameworks to deliver effective solutions.

Renee holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Yale University.

As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Susan Insley oversees NextNav’s program management and operations, product and software, IT & security, and human resources.  

A seasoned leader with over 25 years of experience in people management, finance, and business operations, Susan has held key roles at renowned technology companies, including VMware, VeriSign, and Intel. She excels in aligning organizational strategy with business goals, driving transformative changes that enhance operational efficiency and elevate profitability. With a proven track record of optimizing processes and cultivating high-performing teams, Susan consistently delivers measurable, meaningful results on a global scale. 

Prior to her expanded role, Susan served as NextNav’s Chief People Officer, where she successfully transformed the company’s people strategy and enhanced employee engagement worldwide. Her talent for orchestrating enterprise-wide alignment across complex organizations enables her to identify strategic opportunities and implement effective solutions. 

Susan earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Georgia and received certifications in Internal Audit and Risk Management Assurance. Beyond her professional achievements, she serves on the board of Team Telomere, a non-profit organization supporting individuals affected by Telomere Biology Disorders.

John Kim leads NextNav’s technical strategy on the company’s vision to deliver a terrestrial complement and backup to GPS over 5G networks. The forward-thinking leadership he has established has helped to position the company as a pioneer in this mission-critical technology domain. 

A dynamic executive with over 20 years of expertise across wired, wireless, and cable industries, John brings valuable experience from both innovative startups and Fortune 200 corporations. His career spans technology leadership roles across the telecommunications ecosystem, including positions at VMWare, CableLabs, DISH Network, and Time Warner Cable. 

John holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Melon University. 

Ed Mortimer is NextNav’s Vice President of Government Affairs, bringing over thirty years of experience in infrastructure legislation and regulation to the team. Most notably, Mortimer served as the Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure for the United States Chamber of Commerce from 2015 to 2022, a role in which he was an outspoken champion of and critical leader for the passage of the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill. Ed was named a “Top Lobbyist” by The Hill magazine in 2022.

As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Arun Raghupathy heads Engineering at NextNav spanning Systems Algorithms, Hardware, Firmware and Software domains. Before co-founding NextNav, he spent more than 10 years as a technology leader developing innovative ideas and maturing them into commercial products at multiple technology companies. At Qualcomm, he was involved in development of technology for cellular modems including key contributions to transmitter design and to the design of the first CDMA direct conversion receiver chipset. At Texas Instruments, he led the GPS systems team and, as system architect, developed innovative GPS measurement and positioning techniques applied to multiple generations of smartphone multi-radio chipsets. At NextNav, he has been a key contributor to the critical IP and the architect for system/HW/SW design for the TerraPoiNT and Pinnacle services. He has more than 50 issued patents.

He has a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1999 and an M.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park 1996. with specialization in signal processing and communications. Prior to that, Arun obtained a Bachelors of Technology in Electronics Engineering and Communications degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1993.

Serving as Chief Innovation Officer at NextNav, Sanyogita Shamsunder is a leading voice in wireless technology development and advancement. As a distinguished thought leader, she articulates NextNav’s pioneering innovations and future-focused initiatives, engaging diverse global audiences to strengthen NextNav’s market presence and technical advantage. Through her work, the company’s innovations and long-term vision gain recognition and impact within the broader marketplace. 

Previously, Sanyogita led Edge Network Infrastructure at Google, managing their multi-vendor Global Edge Network. At Verizon, as Vice President of Product Strategy and Operations, she pioneered early 5G network technology development. 

Sanyogita  is regularly invited to deliver plenary, keynote addresses and panel discussions at premier technology conferences, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Mobile World Congress (MWC). She contributes her expertise through board service with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC), and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at New York Institute of Technology. 

Sanyogita holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and mathematics from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the Wharton School, and a B.E. from Osmania University, India.