LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has dined with President Donald Trump at the White House, lost a flashy trial where he testified against his rival Sam Altman and accompanied Trump to China for a major diplomatic summit.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, has had a different itinerary over the last six months. She spoke at a telecom trade show in Barcelona, Spain, to boost SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink; mingled with politicians in India, a potentially large market for the company; and appeared with tech executives at the White House to pledge that their data centers would not increase energy prices for Americans.
For 24 years, Shotwell has played the adult-in-the-room foil to Musk at SpaceX. While he was advising Trump and running his other companies, such as the electric carmaker Tesla, she was focused on developing SpaceX’s business as the rocket and satellite maker grew into a more than $1 trillion company.
That work — and her ultimate loyalty to Musk — has made her one of the world’s most powerful female executives, who is now being thrust into the spotlight as SpaceX prepares for a blockbuster initial public offering this month. Unlike Musk, Shotwell, 62, has long kept a low profile. She rarely posts on social media — usually in service of SpaceX, when she does — and makes just the occasional public appearance.
Perhaps her most notable trait is her ability to persist by Musk’s side for decades, even as he has churned through executives at his other companies. Two former SpaceX executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their personal relationships used one word to describe her: “survivor.”