Gwynne Shotwell has been appointed President of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), this comes after her service to the California Space Authority (CSA), which represents the state's diverse space enterprise. In her new position, Ms. Shotwell will be part of the Office of the Chairman and CEO and report to Elon Musk, CEO and CTO. As President, she will focus on the operational activities of SpaceX, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, launch operations, legal, government relations and finance.

“The space enterprise community has come to know Gwynne Shotwell for her leadership in providing space access to the private sector,” noted Andrea Seastrand, Executive Director of CSA. “As a member of the CSA Board of Directors, we have experienced her leadership capabilities first hand, and we fully expect her to continue to advocate for greater commercial activities in space.”

Ms. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as Vice President of Business Development to generate and manage SpaceX's customer base and the company's strategic and government relations. Previously, she served for 10 years at The Aerospace Corporation and before that, directed business development at Microcosm, Inc. She began her engineering career at Chrysler Corp.

In 2004, she was elected to the California Space Authority Board of Directors and currently serves on its Executive Committee. She has served as chairperson of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee and as an officer of the AIAA Los Angeles Chapter.

Ms. Shotwell graduated with honors from Northwestern University with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Applied Mathematics.