Senior Director, International Relations and Strategic Engagement Mikel Savides is the Senior Director for International Relations and Strategic Engagement at BlackSky, where he leads efforts to integrate space-based intelligence into global security and defense initiatives. His work focuses on strengthening partnerships that support national defense priorities, international crisis response, and allied security cooperation. Prior to joining BlackSky, Savides was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, where he worked extensively on emerging conflicts, global crisis response, and multilateral security cooperation. His assignments included service in the Department’s 24/7 crisis hub (the Operations Center), as a political-military affairs advisor on Middle East policy, and in overseas postings in Europe and Central Asia. He supported U.S. interagency task forces addressing conflict in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, advised on UN peacekeeping negotiations, and coordinated bilateral and multilateral engagements to strengthen regional security architectures. Savides studied Russian and Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute and is an alumnus of the State Department–Congress Communication Project, a bipartisan initiative that fosters collaboration between foreign policy professionals and U.S. lawmakers. He began his career in the U.S. Marine Corps, with assignments at U.S. embassies in India, Belgium, and Nepal. Following his military service, Savides led strategic communications and external relations for national security space programs at Lockheed Martin. Mikel holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of California, San Diego, and is currently an Executive MBA candidate at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.