Reinventing Geospatial®, Inc.’s (RGi’s®) Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chitra Sivanandam, shares her story on this week’s podcast episode of Iron Butterfly. Iron Butterfly, co-produced by the Amazing Women of the IC (AWIC) and the National Security Institute, is the first podcast by women that features the stories of women in the intelligence community (IC).

During the podcast, Chitra shares about her journey over the past 25-years as an imaging scientist with the IC and Department of Defense (DoD), and how being comfortable with wacky and unusual ideas has played a vital role in her success. She discusses the importance of people being their whole authentic selves, and how it brings variety and diversity to the table.

Chitra also owns a brewing company, The Craft of Brewing, and she talks about the risk she took to build her brewing company and the time it takes to run it. While she has support from her family, she states that her biggest limiting factor is time, and how a lack of time is partially the value of why Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here. Chitra says, “It’s why [AI] is critical. That’s why we’re making it. That’s why we’re consuming it. We’re going to all buy ourselves back some time.”

The podcast was named “Iron Butterfly” after Eloise Page who worked her way up from a secretary position for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), to a case officer, and later became the first female Chief of Station at CIA. During her career journey, she proudly earned the nickname “Iron Butterfly,” which signifies being a fierce fighter with a core of steel.

Check out Chitra’s Iron Butterfly podcast episode wherever you listed to podcasts: Acast, Apple Podcast, Spotify.