Gwynne Shotwell | |
|---|---|
 Shotwell in August 2018 | |
| Born | Gwynne Rowley (1963-11-23)November 23, 1963 (age 61) Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | Northwestern University (BS,MS) |
| Title | President andchief operating officer of SpaceX |
| Spouse(s) | Leon Gurevich (div.) Robert Shotwell |
| Children | 2 |
Gwynne Shotwell (néeRowley, previously Gurevich; born November 23, 1963[1]) is an Americanbusinesswoman and engineer. She is the president and chief operating officer ofSpaceX, an American space transportation company, where she is responsible for day-to-day operations and company growth.[2]
As of 2023[update], Shotwell is listed as the 28thmost powerful woman in the world byForbes.[3] She was ranked 54th onFortune's list of Most Powerful Women in 2023.[4] In 2020,Time magazine named her asone of the 100 most influential people in the world.[5] In 2018, she was listed as the most powerful female engineer byBusiness Insider.[6]
Shotwell was born inEvanston, Illinois, as the middle of three daughters to a brain surgeon and an artist, and was raised inLibertyville, Illinois.[7] In 1982, she graduated fromLibertyville High School.[8] In 1969 when she was six years old, she watched atelevision broadcast of theApollo 11 mission with her family, but remembers finding it "boring" and was not interested in space at the time. Shotwell excelled in both academics and athletics in high school, where she was on the cheerleading and varsity basketball teams while achieving at the top of her class.[7] Her interests changed during high school after her mother took her to a panel discussion at theIllinois Institute of Technology by theSociety of Women Engineers, where amechanical engineer in particular inspired Shotwell to become an engineer.[9][10] Following this, she decided to apply toNorthwestern University, where she received aBachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, and later aMaster of Science degree inapplied mathematics.[7][11]
At the beginning of her career, Shotwell had an interview withIBM on the day of theSpace ShuttleChallenger disaster, which disturbed her and she did not get a job offer[citation needed]. Instead, Shotwell took a job in theautomotive industry atChrysler Corporation'smanagement training program, which she initially enjoyed[11] but later grew tired of[7] and left to return to Northwestern for her graduate degree.[12]
In 1988, Shotwell began work at theEl Segundo research center ofThe Aerospace Corporation, and did technical work on military spaceresearch and development contracts. An early project she worked on wasSTS-39.[11] During a ten-year tenure, she worked inthermal analysis.[7] Shotwell worked in both space systems engineering and project management positions.[13]
She left The Aerospace Corporation in 1998 to become director of the space systems division at Microcosm Inc., a small rocket company in El Segundo.[7] There, she served on the executive committee and was responsible forbusiness development.[14]
Shotwell left Microcosm in 2002 to joinSpaceX, a private, commercial, space exploration company founded byElon Musk in the same year.[15] She was introduced to Musk through her former Microcosm colleagueHans Koenigsmann who had joined SpaceX.[16] In that meeting, she convinced Musk that SpaceX should hire a dedicated employee to work on business development full-time, but had not planned to join the company herself. Shotwell took the job two weeks later in September 2002.[17] In December 2008, Shotwell was promoted to company president following her role in the successful negotiation of the firstCommercial Resupply Services contract with the NASA Associate AdministratorBill Gerstenmaier.[18] This followed SpaceX's first successful launch of theFalcon 1 on its fourth attempt earlier in the year.[19] She was responsible for leading the effort on building the Falcon Vehicle manifest to over 50 launches, generating $5 billion in revenue. This included a commercial connection to theInternational Space Station for resupplying services, where they were able to deliver cargo and supplies to the astronauts.[13] Shotwell is the President and COO of SpaceX, responsible for day-to-day operations and managing all customer and strategic relations to support company growth.[20]
She oversaw 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, and the first re-flight of a commercial cargo spacecraft.[13] SpaceX has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA to deliver astronauts and science instruments to the International Space Station. On May 30, 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to launch two astronauts to Earth orbit.[21]
Shotwell has received particular praise fromNASA AdministratorBill Nelson for her "phenomenal" leadership of SpaceX as it developed the Falcon 9 into the "workhorse" of the space launch sector.[22] Nelson had reportedly been concerned in 2022, after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, that it would be a distraction at SpaceX, but became more comfortable after meetings with Shotwell left him feeling reassured that she was in charge of day-to-day operations.[23][24]
In February 2019,Polaris Industries announced that Shotwell would join their board of directors in March 2019.[25]
Shotwell has served on theCalifornia Space Authority Board of Directors and its executive committee after she was elected in 2004. She has served as an officer on theAIAA Space Systems Technical Committee and participates in a variety ofSTEM related programs. She led a committee that raised over $350,000 in scholarships for the Frank J. Redd Student Competition over six years.[26]
Shotwell has been criticized for her response to several alleged cases of sexism, sexual harassment and assault at SpaceX.[27][28]
Following the 2022invasion of Ukraine, Shotwell led negotiations with government agencies for requestedStarlink satellite services in the country,[29] which were at first donated by SpaceX.[30] These arrangements were later formalized in aDoD contract to buy Starlink for Ukraine.[31] Earlier, Shotwell had announced that her company took measures to prevent the use of Starlink to controlcombat drones.[32] She stated Ukrainians had used the service in ways not part of the agreement, as she had accepted to donate Starlink satellite services for communications, defense and humanitarian purposes such as "ambulances, hospitals and mothers" but had not intended it to be weaponized fordrone strikes.[32][33][34]
Shotwell gave a TEDx Talk at TEDxChapmanU in June 2013 on the importance ofscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics.[35] She speaks regularly to business audiences and gave a talk for the "Captains of Industry" series at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security in June 2014 on private entrepreneurial accomplishments in advancing spaceflight technology.[36]
At the 2018TED conference, Shotwell was interviewed byChris Anderson about the future plans of SpaceX.[37]
At theGrace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing on September 28, 2018, Shotwell's talk was titled "Launching Our Future" and she discussed her vision and advancements for aerospace technology, as well as why diversity and the inclusion of women are necessary to advance as a society.[38]
Shotwell is married to an engineer at NASA'sJet Propulsion Laboratory. She has two children from a previous marriage with Leon Gurevich.[39][40]
Shotwell owns a ranch inHamilton County, Texas, near theSpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility inMcGregor, Texas which she considers to be her "home office."[41]
This [reusable launch vehicle technology], all this innovation is being done by SpaceX alone, no one is paying us to do it. The government is very interested in the data we are collecting on this test series. ... This is the kind of thing that entrepreneurial investment and new entrants/innovators can do for an industry: fund their own improvements, both in the quality of their programs and the quality of their hardware, and the speed and cadence of their operations.
(after 2:53:00, and a review of video of several failed attempts to land a booster rocket on a drone ship, and then a successful return of an orbital first stage to a landing pad) It's awesome. You know, I don't think you get that kind of thrill in banking. It's extraordinary.
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