How Elon Musk's second-in-command Gwynne Shotwell helped turn SpaceX into an IPO giant

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell celebrates with family and other SpaceX employees at the Nasdaq Marketsite in in New York after the SpaceX initial public offering on June 12, 2026. Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images In 2002, SpaceX founder Elon Musk poached Gwynne Shotwell as one of his earliest hires at the less-than-a-year-old startup. Twenty-four years later, Shotwell leads the company's day-to-day running as president and chief operating officer and rang the trading bell on the Nasdaq trading floor for the company's blockbuster IPO on Friday. She's also one of the largest individual shareholders in SpaceX, with her stake worth around $2 billion at market close on the stock's debut on Friday. CNBC spoke to four people who Shotwell worked with and said that, while Musk is the visionary behind the company's direction, Shotwell is the one getting stuff done. "While Elon's setting the vision, she's the one making sure it gets delivered," Nathan Silvernail, who spent seven years at SpaceX as an engineer on projects like life support systems from 2014 to 2021, told CNBC. "She handles the operational execution that actually keeps the business running and brings in the funding," he said. …