Gwynne Shotwell

Gwynne Shotwell
Gwynne Shotwell at pre-launch briefing for CRS-2 mission
Born	(1963-11-23) November 23, 1963 (age 53) Libertyville, Illinois
Nationality	American
Education	Mechanical Engineering (B.Sc.) Applied Mathematics (M.Sc.)
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Known for	The Aerospace Corporation, Microcosm Inc, SpaceX
Title	President and Chief operating officer of SpaceX
Children	2

Gwynne Shotwell (born November 23, 1963) is an American businesswoman. She is the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, a United States corporation providing space transport services to both government and commercial customers. As of 2016, she is listed as the 76th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Shotwell was born in Libertyville, Illinois. She received, with honors, a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University.

Shotwell originally planned to work in the automotive industry and was enrolled in Chrysler Corporation's management training program but did not remain in that industry.

In 1988, she began work at the El Segundo research center of The Aerospace Corporation, and did technical work on military space research and development contracts. During a ten-year tenure she worked in thermal analysis while "writing dozens of papers on a variety of subjects including conceptual small spacecraft design, infrared signature target modeling, space shuttle integration and reentry vehicle operational risks".