SpaceX president credited with keeping Musk under control

Gwynne Shotwell is credited by colleagues and competitors as being most responsible for tempering Elon Musk’s impulses.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell with astronaut Bob Behnken.

Gwynne Shotwell was in the first dozen employees hired in 2002 by start-up Space Exploration Technologies. Now, as president of the industry-leading rocket maker, she serves as the essential counterpoint and buffer for its mercurial chairman, Elon Musk.

Ms Shotwell is credited by colleagues and competitors as being most responsible for tempering Mr Musk’s impulses while helping turn his space dreams into reality. The 54-year-old’s influence and longevity in the Musk inner circle — along with the ability to prosper in a pressure-cooker job — offer a contrast to the revolving door of lieutenants exiting Tesla, where Mr Musk also is chief executive.

Some space experts cite Ms Shotwell’s calm and collegial manner for helping closely held SpaceX avoid the management and legal turmoil roiling Tesla, as Mr Musk faces a federal civil suit seeking to bar him from serving as an officer of that or any other US public company.

“She has managed to not only survive but thrive in a tough role that other people haven’t managed as well,” said Lori Garver, a former senior official at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration who dealt frequently with Ms Shotwell. Her personality and leadership, Ms Garver said, “provide the secret sauce for the company, which has helped keep it successful.”

Today, SpaceX, as the company with 7000 workers is called, has challenged the space-transportation business by slashing costs and reusing boosters.

A sign of Ms Shotwell’s effectiveness was using her NASA connections in 2013 to help SpaceX snare an exclusive, long-term lease for launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, according to people familiar with the matter, contracting documents and agency emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Pad 39A helped launch US astronauts to the moon and now is integral to SpaceX’s operations.

Ms Shotwell and Mr Musk, through a SpaceX spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Ms Shotwell started at SpaceX as the head of business development with nothing to sell but the promise of a rocket. She joined, according to an interview with Northwestern University’s alumni magazine, because she relished the challenge. She became president in 2008, responsible for fast-growing operations, along with government and legal affairs. Ms Shotwell’s profile at SpaceX rose because of her success a decade ago snaring the company’s first major contract with NASA to launch cargo into orbit.

“I very seldom dealt with Elon because Gwynne ran the company,” said Charles Bolden, NASA administrator during the Obama administration. She was much more “personable and more inclined to talk about family” in addition to business, he added. Ms Shotwell is the mother of two and her husband works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Critics say Ms Shotwell also has sharp elbows and a reputation for outflanking potential rivals. Others fault Ms Shotwell for failing to prevent burnout among certain SpaceX workers; and former employees say she didn’t keep Mr Musk from abruptly pushing out various managers and then threatening to sue them if they spoke poorly about the company.

Some people praise Ms Shotwell for serving as a mediator or cushion for Mr Musk, who is renowned for overly aggressive deadlines and sometimes unpredictable moves. Industry veterans credit Ms Shotwell with eventually persuading her boss to refrain from riling politicians by attacking NASA’s proposed deep-space rocket. Ms Shotwell worked hard “to keep him from being too publicly negative” and creating unnecessary enemies on Capitol Hill, Ms Garver said.

Mr Musk has shown his trust in Ms Shotwell. She is the only other company official permitted to clear press statements or stand in for him at launch sites, current and former company officials say.

Matt Desch, CEO of satellite-operator Iridium Communications, SpaceX’s largest commercial customer, said his “company has almost never had to deal with Elon”. Mr Desch said Ms Shotwell never appeared to have to check with anyone before making decisions. Likewise, Ms Shotwell is loyal to Mr Musk. Associates and industry officials say they have never heard her criticise Mr Musk or even poke fun at his prickly personality, as other SpaceX managers are inclined to do in social settings.

“I love working for Elon,” Ms Shotwell said in a CNBC interview this year, calling him “a great boss” who is funny, fair and an inspirational leader.

Nonetheless, Ms Shotwell has been willing to sound a cautionary note regarding some of Mr Musk’s more-ambitious predictions. She has warned that SpaceX’s plans to build and operate a constellation of its own communication satellites will work only if major technical and business questions can be resolved. Mr Musk, on the other hand, has offered more unqualified support for the plan.

Lately, Ms Shotwell has been focused on using SpaceX rockets and capsules to start regular missions blasting US astronauts to the international space station by 2019. The effort is years behind schedule, but Kathy Lueders, NASA’s project manager, said Ms Shotwell is adept at setting aggressive dates but backing off as safety or engineering challenges demand.

Kirk Shireman, NASA’s program manager for the orbiting laboratory, said she “does a good job of leading her team” while simultaneously giving employees freedom to make their own decisions. That was “easy to communicate in a company with 20 or 200 people,” Mr Shireman added, but “they have adapted well as their systems have grown”.