This month we are spotlighting the newest member of the RBC Signals team, Samantha Sargent. Sam is RBC Signals’ new Vice President of Business Development for North America. Sam comes to RBC Signals with a background in space industry sales and business development, having spent time on both the ground systems and the launch brokerage sides of the industry.
Long before Sam began her professional career in the space industry, she was always obsessed with all things in orbit and beyond. It was an early trip to the Kennedy Space Center where she was able to witness space innovation firsthand that helped fuel her passion for space. She was inspired to write space science fiction as a teenager and is a self-published author. At the University of Florida, her interest in writing led her to an undergraduate degree in English and she went on to earn an MS in Business Administration. She put these degrees to use in her career in sales, business development, and project management in the space industry.
Sam loves the experiences that working in business development provides. She loves being able to meet and talk with customers doing interesting things in space. Sam says “Every customer is doing something unique, interesting, or creative. Every person in space is passionate, genuinely excited, and ready to tell you all about their ideas.” It is not just about dreams. She enjoys helping people take incremental steps to success. Sam loves wild ideas. She also loves working with customers to put together a checklist for how to make that dream a reality. They work together on breaking big items into smaller, actionable items. Sam has her Project Management Professional certification (PMP) which allows her to help customers on this path.
Communications is a critical part of turning those space dreams into a monetizable reality. “Conversations around communications actually makes you think about how long your mission will last.” says Sam. “It directly monetizes your mission and how much you need to make back vs how long you need to monetize. Many customers think their mission will only last 6 months to a year, but what if it lasts longer? You need to build margin around that time. If it does last 3 years, we talk about what the numbers might look like.”
Sam says, “I love the space industry and want to stay in it forever.” Part of the fuel that keeps her going in this industry is the dreamers. She says “the space industry today is like the Alaskan prospectors of yesterday stopping in Seattle. Those people built the tools and provided the resources for those willing to make their dreams come true. Humans want to be interconnected and not isolated. What are people going to do in space? They are going to connect, and communications will be a key part of that.”