Susmita Gongulee Thomas joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976.

As a professional diplomat she has served in countries like Spain, Japan, and at Washington DC from 1990 to 1993 as the political counsellor. She subsequently served as the India’s Ambassador to Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Then she was the Indian Ambassador to Chile from 2004 to 2008.  Before taking up herassignment as Ambassador of India to Turkey, she served as the Consul General of India in San Francisco.  As the Indian Ambassador to Chile she increased bilateral trade from 200 million dollars to 2.5 billion dollars and successfully managed two Presidential visits to and from India.

She was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from University of Santo Tomas in Santiago for her work with Chile. She has been recognized as one of the top Project Management Women Experts by the Project Management Institute in the US.

Her husband Thomas P. Thomas is in the private sector. She has two children, a daughter and a son.