Sonita Lontoh
Sonita Lontoh is a technology executive focusing on Internet of Things, 'smart' connected energy/devices, and green technology. In particular, she focuses on societal benefits and global cross-border collaborations on innovation, human capital and leadership development. She is of Minahasa and Minangkabau descent from Indonesia.Career and achievement
Lontoh is an executive at HP, Inc., the global technology company. Formerly, she was an executive at Siemens, the global industrial conglomerate and Trilliant, a venture-backed technology company in Silicon Valley. Prior to this, she was a leader at PG&E Corporation, a Fortune 200 energy-based holding company in San Francisco, serving approximately 20 million customers in California. Earlier in her career, Lontoh was spent a few years as a technology entrepreneur.
Lontoh is a professional mentor and selection committee member for the TechWomen program, a United States Department of State women-in-technology initiative spearheaded by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to implement President Barack Obama’s vision for greater collaboration between the United States and emerging leaders in global communities.
Lontoh is a co-founder and chairman of the board of the Indonesian Diaspora Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to empowering Indonesian diaspora worldwide and help with Indonesian-American relations. She is also co-founder and Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Asia Technology Alliance, a nonprofit focusing on increasing global cross-collaborations between Silicon Valley and the technology and business communities in emerging Asia.
Lontoh was invited by the White House to speak on the US-ASEAN Connect Initiative and Internet of Things at President Barack Obama's 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University, and to attend an event to honor AAPI Women Champions of Change. Lontoh received the Diaspora Entrepreneurship and Corporate Excellence award from the Government of Indonesia and was named a Global Emerging Leader Under 40. In February 2017, the Robert Chinn Foundation named Lontoh as an inductee to the national Asian Hall of Fame. Other inductees included Johnny Damon, Daniel Dae-Kim, Bruce Lee, Kristi Yamaguchi, Connie Chung, Norman Mineta, Gary Locke, Nathan Adrian, and Apolo Ohno.
Lontoh is a member of 85 Broads, a global network for professional women founded in 1997 as a network for current and former Goldman Sachs employees who worked at the firm's headquarters at 85 Broad Street, NYC, and at other Goldman Sachs offices worldwide. On May 15, 2013, the New York Times reported that Sallie L. Krawcheck, a former executive of Bank of America and Citigroup, had agreed to buy 85 Broads.
Lontoh received her Master of Engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California Berkeley. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology listed Lontoh as one of its Notable Women Alumni.
