Sonita Lontoh: On Board Culture, Innovation, and Creative Tension

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

(0:00) Intro.

(1:24) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(2:12) Start of interview.

(4:04) Sonita's "origin story."

(5:45) Her professional career, starting with a startup in the gaming industry.

(8:15) Her guiding principles for her career at the intersection of innovation, sustainability and digital transformation.

(9:30) Her roles at HP, Siemens and PG&E.

(11:00) Her board "portfolio" life starting in 2022: SunRun and TrueBlue. Advisor to Sway Ventures.

(14:02) About the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Board Culture (where she served as a Commissioner).

(17:00) Surprises and takeaways from the report.

(22:30) Recommendations for handling the increasing politicization in the boardroom.

(26:42) On geopolitics in the boardroom. Supply-chain vs consumer market.

(31:30) On the solar and battery industry geopolitical landscape.

(38:23) How should directors think about AI in the boardroom. "Everyday AI" vs "Game-changing AI". Use cases: 1) Back-office capabilities, 2) core capabilities, 3) front office, 4) New products and services. AI code of conduct. Use of data. Cybersecurity.

(43:51) On the impact of AI in the workplace. *reference to study by Erik Brynjolfsson

(47:09) Books that have greatly influenced her life:

1. The Five Levels of Leadership, by John Maxwell (2011)
2. Venture Mindset, by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang (2024)
3. Last Lecture Series at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (July 2023), by Graham Weaver.

(48:06) Her mentors.

(49:22) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.

(50:44) An unusual habit or absurd thing that she loves.

(51:30) The living person she most admires.

Sonita Lontoh is a public company board director, strategic advisor, and former Fortune 100 senior executive who focuses on digital innovation, artificial intelligence (AI), and sustainability — contributing positive impact to businesses, consumers, and society.

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License