SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell appears to be calling the shots at Elon Musk’s company. She oversees most of the rocket company’s central business, per an org chart from The Information. Here’s everything we know about the SpaceX president and COO.
In 2002, Gwynne Shotwell went to work for a new company called SpaceX as vice president of business development. After a brief meeting with founder Elon Musk, he called to encourage her to apply for the job. She was immediately hired – and began a partnership that took the company from an ambitious concept to a company valued at more than $20 billion that is revolutionizing the launch business.
As VP of business development, she led the effort to build the Falcon vehicle manifest to over 50 launches representing $5 billion in revenue including commercial resupply services for delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.
She became President and Chief Operating Officer in 2008, and assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations and for managing the customer and strategic relationships that support company growth. Under her leadership, SpaceX’s backlog has grown to more than $7 billion worth of launches while achieving a set of remarkable milestones including –
- The first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft, to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, and to send a satellite into GEO orbit
- The first landing of an orbital rocket’s first stage on land and on an ocean platform
- The first relaunch and landing of a used orbital rocket
- The first controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing
- The first reflight of a commercial cargo spacecraft
While Musk is the CEO and public face of the aerospace company, Shotwell handles nearly every team internally, according to an org chart reviewed by The Information.
Shotwell has 21 direct reports to Musk’s four and oversees most of SpaceX’s central business, including the teams working on Starlink, Falcon, and Starship.
One former SpaceX employee, Vincent Peters, told Business Insider that Shotwell “is the singular most important person within SpaceX outside of Elon.”
“She moves the needle for employee morale and customer confidence in SpaceX and serves as an azimuth within the company as priorities evolve,” he added.
Shotwell was one of SpaceX’s earliest employees. Here’s everything we know about the powerful SpaceX president.
Early life
Shotwell was born in 1963 and raised in Illinois. She is the daughter of a brain surgeon and an artist and has two sisters, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
An A-student in high school, she later gained an MSc in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics from Northwestern University.
She told the LA Times she developed an early interest in machines. This evolved into a career in the automotive field before moving into the aerospace industry.
In a 2014 interview with Via Satellite, she credited a speech at a Society of Women Engineer’s event in her teenage years with inspiring her to pursue a career in mechanical engineering.
One of the first SpaceX employees
Shotwell was the 11th person hired by SpaceX.
She joined the company in 2002 as vice president of business development following a stint at spacecraft developer Microcosm. She came to SpaceX after more than ten years at the Aerospace Corporation, where she held positions in space systems engineering and project management, and worked on conceptual small spacecraft design, space shuttle integration and reentry vehicle operational risks.
Inspired to actually help put spacecraft together, she became director of Microcosm, a low-cost rocket builder. There she also honed the skills in business development and sales that would have such an impact on SpaceX.
Shotwell told the LA Times in 2013: “I knew early on if these guys [at SpaceX] couldn’t make it in the space industry, nobody will. If we hadn’t achieved success, I was willing to leave the aerospace industry altogether and go sell real estate or something. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Over her 22 years at SpaceX, Shotwell has risen through the ranks to become COO and president, making her one of the most important figures.
Secret to SpaceX’s success
Shotwell has long been rumored to pull the strings at SpaceX.
For much of her time at the company, she has overseen its operations and sales while Musk has focused on developing the technology. Investors have praised the pair’s partnership and credit it with much of SpaceX’s success.
Peters, founder of Inheritance AI, told BI that Shotwell was the “cornerstone of consistency and continuity at SpaceX” amid “Elon’s involvement in his entities outside of SpaceX.”
He said Shotwell’s leadership style was “between transformational leadership and democratic leadership,” adding she was extremely approachable to all employees.
SpaceX has about 13,000 employees in California, Texas, and Florida.
The COO has 21 direct reports, while Musk has only four. Shotwell also oversees most of SpaceX’s central business, including the teams working on Starlink, Falcon, and Starship.
According to Forbes, Shotwell has an estimated stake in SpaceX of less than 1%.
It seems she enjoys getting hands-on at times:
Astronaut and personnel safety is SpaceXs highest priority, which is why I had to personally test the new slide https://t.co/6B3BecfNjm
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) March 20, 2024
Relationship with Elon Musk
Shotwell has said she enjoys working for Musk and previously praised the billionaire’s management style.
“I love working for Elon,” she said in a 2018 TED Talk.
“He’s funny, and fundamentally, without him saying anything, he drives you to do your best work. He doesn’t have to say a word. You just want to do great work,” she told the audience.
Shotwell has come to Musk’s defense on numerous occasions, most recently over claims about his conduct with female SpaceX workers.
In response to some of the claims in a Wall Street Journal report, she said: “I continue to be amazed by what this extraordinary group of people are achieving every day, even amidst all the forces acting against us. And Elon is one of the best humans I know.”
Gwynne has served on the California Space Authority Board of Directors and as an officer of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee. She is a strong proponent of STEM education and has led the fundraising committee of the Frank J. Redd Student Scholarship Competition in raising more than $350,000 in scholarship funding in six years.
Additional information by BEATRICE NOLAN as originally published on Business insider Magazine.