One of my passions in life is women in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Gwynne Shotwell is one of my biggest heroes in life. As a young girl, she made a most unconventional career choice. She decided to study mechanical engineering. She graduated as what engineers called "a gear head." She went into the auto industry. Later she migrated into the aerospace industry. She did quite well, At age 40 she was in senior management at a serious aerospace company. She owned 3% of the shares in the firm.
Gwynne wrote an article on the positive
aspects and the potential of the commercial spaceflight industry. A young man
named Elon Musk read the article. He was the president of a struggling young
commercial rocket company named Space X. He had a lot of dreams and plans but
no actual success.
Elon contacted Gwynne. They had a
face-to-face meeting. He offered her the job of president of SpaceX. Gwynne was
impressed with Elon and what she heard. She thought long and hard. She was 40
and had just had a divorce. She had young children to think about. She decided
to take a giant risk and accept Elon's offer.
The rest is history. I draw an analogy
between Elon and Gwynne and Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg.
Elon and
Mark had great ideas. Gwynne and Sheryl made it happen! Here is a great interview that Gwynne gave at
Stanford Graduate School of Business:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-vAeYTxRA
Please take the time to watch this
interview!
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