Sotir Kolea was born in the Goricë district of Berat, southern Albania (then part of the Ottoman Empire) on September 4, 1872.

[1] His father Kristo was a lawyer that worked as a legal counselor for the French company La Regie Des Tabacs, which held the monopoly on tobacco in the Ottoman Empire.

After graduating from the local Greek-language gymnasium, he was hired by La Regie Des Tabacs and worked in their Ohrid branch.

After the Albanian Declaration of Independence, he took part of a delegation sent to the London Conference, together with Rasih Dino, Filip Noga, and Mehmet Konica.

[4] In 1919-20 he was a member of the Albanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and the Franco-Albanian Administrative Council.