A discussion with
Gwynne Shotwell
President and COO, SpaceX
With an introduction by
General James E. Cartwright
Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Moderated by
Steven Grundman
M.A. and George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security
The Atlantic Council is pleased to announce that Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), will make an address on “The Future of American Space Launch,” at 10:30 a.m. on June 4th.
SpaceX is the talk of the aerospace industry. In the dozen years since its founding in 2002, the company has developed a brand new family of rockets which today resupplies the International Space Station and delivers commercial satellites into orbit. It is developing a spacecraft to enable human spaceflight and is in the process of qualifying its launchers to compete for Air Force national security space missions. Its success owes much to the vision and technical excellence of its founder, Elon Musk, but also to business and public policy strategies developed by Gwynne Shotwell that are challenging conventional approaches to space launch and exploration. Ms. Shotwell’s remarks will address the company’s strategy for space launch and the challenge of bringing change to government markets.
The Atlantic Council Captains of Industry Series is a platform for senior aerospace and defense industry executives to address the public interests their companies serve and the public policies that shape their markets. By engaging the perspective of business leaders about issues at the interface of government and industry, the series is cultivating a constituency for practical solutions to these problems.
Gwynne Shotwell joined SpaceX as the company’s vice president for business development, in which capacity she built a book of business totaling approximately fifty launches. Today, as president and chief operating officer, she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of SpaceX and for managing all customer and strategic relations. She also serves on the SpaceX board of directors. Prior to joining SpaceX in 2002, Ms. Shotwell spent more than ten years with the Aerospace Corporation, where she held positions in Space Systems Engineering and Technology as well as in program management. Among her many honors is the 2011 World Technology Award for Individual Achievement in Space.