Senior Director of Strategy and Customer Experience, Virgin Orbit

Monica’s career spans research and development, investment, and business strategy in the technology and aerospace sector. She has been involved in research and development in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, networking architectures and hardware, telematics systems, and space systems. She has worked with both entrepreneurs and corporations on product development, business development, strategic partnerships, operations and cross-functional process improvement, and supply chain alignment. In her strategy consulting career, she worked with Fortune 500 corporations on domestic and international market expansion, and advised high- tech start-ups on their venture strategy.

Prior to joining Virgin Orbit, Monica co-founded LightSpeed Innovations, an aerospace accelerator, working with new space entrepreneurs on launching their ventures. During her tenure at Northrop Grumman and TRW, she managed various satellite and spacecraft test environment developments and led enterprise resource planning initiatives, where her architecture and implementation of a satellite switching subsystem won the Chairman’s Innovation Award. As the vice chair of the Wharton Angel Network and part of the steering committee for Wharton Aerospace Ventures, Monica works actively with investors and entrepreneurs from diverse industries.

Monica holds both BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, a Systems Engineering certificate from the California Institute of Technology, and an MBA from The Wharton School. She held a faculty position at The Wharton School with the Global Consulting Practicum Program.