Who is Gwynne Shotwell, Elon Musk’s second in command at SpaceX?

In 2002, SpaceX Founder Elon Musk poached Gwynne Shotwell as one of his first hires when the startup was less than a year old.

Twenty-four years later, Shotwell leads the company’s day-to-day operations as president and chief operating officer and rang the trading bell on the Nasdaq exchange for the company’s blockbuster IPO on Friday. He is one of the largest shareholders in SpaceX, and his stake could be worth $2 billion in the market when the stock starts trading on Friday.

CNBC spoke to four people Shotwell has worked with and they say that, while Musk is the vision behind the direction of the company, Shotwell is the one who makes things happen.

“When Elon sets the vision, he’s the one who makes sure it’s delivered,” Nathan Silvernail, who spent seven years at SpaceX as an engineer on projects like life support systems from 2014 to 2021, told CNBC.

He said he is the one responsible for the operation of the business which makes the business continue and bring in money. Shotwell, Silvernail added, “is the one who takes the meetings with the clients, builds those relationships, closes the contracts.”

Today, Shotwell, 62, oversees SpaceX’s 22,000 full-time employees, after overseeing the development of the company’s Falcon rockets and contracts with NASA.

An engineer by background, Shotwell graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in applied mathematics.

Originally hired as vice president of business development, Musk made Shotwell president in 2008.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but Shotwell described his working relationship with Musk in a sit-down interview with CNBC, which aired on Friday, the day of the IPO.

“When Elon asked me to be the president, he made it very clear what my job title was and what his job title was,” said Shotwell.

“I feel like I’m there as a partner to help him get things done that need to be done, and I tend to focus on the day-to-day operations of the business, and he’s focused on high-level strategy, and deep dives into technology.”

Shotwell has handled everything from rocket development to the design of Starlink and, most recently, the integration of xAI. He also speaks to clients, regulators and, now, public investors. Shotwell is one of the company’s eight board members.

“In the beginning, he sold the launch when SpaceX didn’t launch successfully and kept the customers happy while the launch was coming out,” said Kathryn Lueders, who spent more than 15 years as a program manager and director at NASA, working directly with Shotwell, before joining SpaceX as general manager for two years, from 2023 to 2025.

“He has always been drawn to good communication with customers, stakeholders and the public,” added Lueders, who now advises aerospace companies, including Germany’s The Exploration Company and space company Vast.

SpaceX’s first Falcon 1 launch failed to reach orbit, but its fourth launch in 2008 became the first privately-made liquid-fueled rocket to reach Earth orbit.

Phil McAlister, NASA administrator for more than 19 years, had meetings and discussions with Shotwell and Musk regarding the development of the Falcon 9 relaunch vehicle and the Crew Dragon capsule.

SpaceX used both to make history in 2020, when it became the first private company to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

“I’ve never seen him cry when he had to make a decision,” McAlister said of Shotwell.

“He collects existing information and moves forward, even if the information is incomplete,” he added. “However, he is willing to reconsider decisions if events do not play out as expected. I think that is different for high-level managers.”

According to SpaceX’s IPO filing last month, Shotwell’s compensation reached $85.8 million in 2025, mostly from option awards. His starting salary was $1.08 million.

Musk and Shotwell’s styles are complementary but completely different, McAlister said.

“Gwynne is very connected. She’s very good at ‘reading the room’, putting people at ease, and knowing the right thing to say in any situation,” he told CNBC. “Elon is a selfish person. You never know what to say, and sometimes conversations can be difficult with him.”

“Elon creates an immediate, sometimes uncomfortable disruption,” Derek Huerta, who worked as a satellite engineer at SpaceX from 2017 to 2024, told CNBC.

“He’s the one who takes it and turns it into a system, thousands of engineers can march in the background, fix things and guide people to an important problem.”

Silvernail said he saw a pattern in the meetings, where Musk was “spewing out raw ideas, sometimes scattered and disorganized.” Shotwell, he added, “translates into something actionable.”

“He’s the dreamer, but he’s the one doing the real digging,” he added.