Executive Management

Mariam Sorond is the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of NextNav (Nasdaq: NN), where she leads the development of groundbreaking terrestrial 3D positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) solutions to backup and complement GPS. Her work addresses a vital national security imperative: strengthening the nation’s PNT infrastructure to ensure continuity and precision in critical applications. With nearly three decades of experience spanning mobile, wireless, fixed, and satellite networks, Mariam brings a rare combination of technical depth and strategic leadership to the role. Prior to joining NextNav, she held senior executive positions at VMware, CableLabs, and DISH Network, driving innovation across 5G, broadband, and edge technologies. She has also served in key advisory roles for the NTIA and FCC, helping shape spectrum policy and communications infrastructure. Mariam is widely recognized for her ability to commercialize emerging technologies and guide organizations through critical moments of transformation.

As Chief Business Development Officer, Sidd Chenumolu spearheads our business development strategy, focusing on building high-impact partnerships and expanding our industry ecosystem. He brings together our client and partner teams to drive the adoption of our terrestrial complement and backup to GPS technology, playing a critical role in the integration of NextNav’s PNT solutions with 5G broadband infrastructure across multiple sectors.

With over 20 years of leadership experience in telecommunications and technology, Sidd has held executive roles at leading companies, including Broadcom, DISH Network, Sprint, and Clearwire. His career is marked by a consistent track record of securing multi-billion-dollar contracts, forging strategic alliances, and delivering transformative business value. He is known for his deep expertise in complex telecommunications negotiations and his ability to cultivate lasting industry relationships. His technical knowledge spans wireless, cloud, networks, and emerging technologies, uniquely positioning him to lead our business development efforts into the future.

He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications from the University of Madras, India.

Chris Gates is NextNav’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for all financial functions, including financial reporting, treasury and financial planning and analysis (FP&A), capital formation, investor relations, and tax. He was appointed CFO in 2021 as part of NextNav’s transition to a publicly traded company, bringing strong financial expertise and industry experience to the role.

In 2010, Chris began working with NextNav on business planning and corporate development. In 2011, he joined NextNav full-time as Senior Vice President of Strategy, Corporate and Business Development. In that role, he led strategic partnerships, contributed to policy and standards outreach, supported public safety initiatives, including E911 and FirstNet, and helped shape the company’s monetization and asset development strategies. He is also a named co-inventor on several patents related to NextNav’s technologies.

He began his career in finance and has broad experience across telecommunications and technology ventures. Prior to NextNav, he served as Vice President of Strategy at SkyTerra, a telecom company integrating satellite and terrestrial radio technologies. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College with a double major in Economics and Engineering Sciences.

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.

Ed Mortimer serves as Vice President of Government Affairs at NextNav, where he leads engagement with government officials, agencies, and industry associations. As a principal advocate for developing terrestrial complement and backup systems to GPS, Ed educates policymakers—particularly on Capitol Hill—about the critical importance of resilient positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies using 5G Broadband Spectrum.

With over 30 years of experience, Ed has built a distinguished career at the intersection of public and private sectors, demonstrating expertise in government affairs on the Hill within the technology and infrastructure domains. Ed’s advocacy and influence have earned him recognition as a “Top Lobbyist” by The Hill for three consecutive years (2022-2024).

His career includes more than 11 years with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, most recently as Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure. After initially joining as Director, Ed transitioned to AECOM, a global infrastructure leader, where he directed government affairs. Upon his return to the Chamber, he was instrumental in securing passage of the 2021 landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (BIL).

Ed holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The American University and completed executive education at Georgetown University.

As Co-Founder and CTO of NextNav, Arun Raghupathy leads the company’s direction in technology innovation and engineering development. Currently he’s guiding the development of NextNav’s next-generation Positioning, Navigation & Timing (PNT) technology, which leverages more than a decade of innovation and incorporates 5G broadband radio access technology and advanced positioning reference signals – designed to meet the demands of an increasingly PNT-reliant world. Arun played a pivotal role in architecting NextNav’s 3-D PNT solutions and services, contributing to foundational IP and driving system, hardware, and software design. He holds more than 50 patents.

Before co-founding NextNav, Arun spent over a decade at Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. At Qualcomm, he contributed to transmitter design and helped develop the first CDMA direct-conversion chipset for mobile handsets. At Texas Instruments, he led the GPS systems team in the development and implementation of advanced GPS signal processing techniques used in smartphone multi-radio chipsets.

Arun received the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Maryland’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UMD and a B.Tech. from IIT Madras.

Heather Ritchie is a senior marketing executive with over 25 years of experience driving growth and brand transformation in technology, telecom, and infrastructure sectors. As Chief Marketing Officer at NextNav, she leads integrated marketing and communications strategies that support the company’s mission to provide a much-needed terrestrial complement and backup to GPS.

Previously, she served as CMO at Ubicquia, supporting over 4x revenue growth and expanding market presence across smart cities and utilities. She also led marketing for Nokia’s $3.6B Cloud and Network Services division and managed global marketing operations for Alcatel-Lucent’s $20B business. Her experience spans global and regional roles, corporate strategy, and end-to-end marketing leadership for one of the world’s most recognized technology brands.

Heather holds a degree in Rhetoric and Professional Writing from the University of Waterloo and is committed to lifelong learning and leadership development. She has guest lectured at the University of Toronto and led the communications track for Nokia’s Women in Leadership program for a decade.