SpaceX made its most important hire in 2002 when Gwynne Shotwell joined as vice president of business development. Shotwell is a former high school cheerleader who is trained as an engineer but lacks their nerdiness, instead she has been described as smooth and well-spoken. She is a trusted Musk advisor who can speak honestly without annoying Musk. Shotwell oversees SpaceX’s day-to-day as president and COO. Mark Juncosa, another Musk lieutenant, was previously in charge of Starlink, the satellite internet constellation that is expected to go public. Last year, Shotwell and Juncosa were put in charge of overseeing the facility and operations of Starbase, one of four active SpaceX launch sites. On the SpaceX board you’ll find Antonio Gracias, a long-time friend and confidant of Musk’s (Gracias stepped down from the Tesla board in 2021). His growth firm, Valor Equity partners, has invested in many Musk companies including SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. Here’s a look at the top execs redefining space exploration at SpaceX.
Read an updated version of this story here.
Elon Musk
Cofounder, CEO, chairman, and chief technical officer
Executives
Gwynne Shotwell
President and COO
Mark Juncosa
VP of vehicle engineering
A top SpaceX exec, Juncosa, along with Shotwell, is said to oversee the facility and operations of SpaceX’s Starbase location.
Bret Johnsen
CFO and president of strategic acquisitions group
William Gerstenmaier
VP, build and flight reliability
Leads SpaceX quality engineering and process development teams. He previously oversaw NASA’s spaceflight efforts.
Charles Kuehmann
VP, materials engineering
He also crosses over to work on Tesla.
Michael Sagan
Deputy general counsel
Bill Riley
Senior director, design reliability and vehicle analysis
He worked on the Starship launch vehicle.
Joe Petrzelka
VP, spacecraft engineering
Tim Hughes
Senior vice president, global business and government affairs
He was also recruited to work at Twitter when Musk bought the company.
Will Heltsley
Vice president of propulsion
Phil Alden
VP of starship production
Kiko Dontchev
VP, launch at SpaceX
Jacob McKenzie
VP, Raptor at SpaceX
Richard Morris
Senior advisor, production
Board of Directors
Elon Musk
Antonio Gracias
Founder, CEO, and CIO of Valor Equity Partners, a growth firm that has invested in SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink.
Luke Nosek
Cofounder of PayPal and Gigafund
Steve Jurvetson
Founder of Future Ventures; cofounder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Gwynne Shotwell
SpaceX president and COO
Donald Harrison
President, global partnerships and corporate development at Google
See who runs Musk’s other companies:
This article is part of Inside Elon's Universe, a special digital edition of Coins2Day.