The people
Musk is the founder and face. These are the people who have built and run SpaceX since 2002.
Leadership
Elon Musk
Founded SpaceX in 2002 with ~$100M of his PayPal money. Owns roughly 40% of the company and about 82–85% of the votes. Lives at Starbase.
Gwynne Shotwell
Hired in August 2002 as head of sales — employee #11 — and president since 2008. Runs the company day to day, oversees ~22,000 people and now xAI's operations too. In October 2026 she moved more than 2 million of her own shares into escrow as a gift to children's Trump Accounts.
Bret Johnsen
CFO since 2011; led the tender offers, the IPO and now xAI's finances. Became a billionaire on IPO day; pay tied to EBITDA targets.
Mark Juncosa
Joined 2005. Falcon, Starlink, Starbase.
Bill Gerstenmaier
Ran NASA human spaceflight for a decade; joined SpaceX in 2020.
Kiko Dontchev
Joined 2010; owns the record-setting launch cadence.
Jon Edwards
Joined April 2004 as a Merlin and Kestrel engine engineer.
Michael Nicolls
Former Starlink VP; has run the xAI/SpaceXSI unit since April 2026.
Tim Hughes
Since 2005; the company's Washington voice.
Julianna Scheiman
“Things are going super well at 39A.”
Andrea Williams
Opens the earnings calls.
Dan Huot
The voice of the Starship webcasts.
Alumni who shaped it
Tom Mueller
His garage-built engine caught Musk's eye. Built Merlin; retired 2020; now CEO of Impulse Space.
Kathy Lueders
Former NASA human-spaceflight chief; retired May 2025, now vice chair of the Texas Space Commission.
Steve Davis
Left to run The Boring Company in 2018 and DOGE in 2025.
Jared Isaacman
Flew Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn on Dragon; confirmed NASA Administrator Dec 17, 2025.
The board
Independent directors Ira Ehrenpreis, Randy Glein, Donald Harrison, Steve Jurvetson, Luke Nosek and Roelof Botha; non-independent directors Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk, Antonio Gracias (whose Valor Equity holds ~3.4%) and Gwynne Shotwell. The independent directors form the special committee studying a Tesla merger.