--- description: Find out why Gwynne Shotwell is one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. title: Gwynne Shotwell: The 100 Most Influential People of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a691c48e982333a/698a1272e76ad285376381f4/time-100-Gwynne-Shotwell.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 22, 2020 # Gwynne Shotwell by Kathryn Sullivan  Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), smiles during the NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) astronaut visit at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018\. Astronauts on SpaceX's Crew Dragon will be the first to fly on an American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station on their mission scheduled for April 2019\. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), smiles during the NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) astronaut visit at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018\. Astronauts on SpaceX's Crew Dragon will be the first to fly on an American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station on their mission scheduled for April 2019\. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPatrick T. Fallon—Bloomberg/Getty Images [Gwynne Shotwell](https://www.wired.com/story/spacexs-president-is-thinking-even-bigger-than-elon-musk/ "undefined") is living proof that you don’t need a space suit to be a [space pioneer](https://time.com/tag/a-year-in-space/ "undefined"). Itching to build something after a decade’s work in the policy and analytical segments of the space sector, she jumped into the fledgling commercial space arena, becoming one of SpaceX’s earliest employees in 2002\. As vice president for business development, Shotwell built the Falcon manifest to more than 70 launches, together valuing more than $10 billion. She rose swiftly to her current role of president and chief operating officer, and under her guidance, [SpaceX](https://time.com/5842445/spacex-crewed-launch/ "undefined") became the first commercial company to launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft, and the first to launch and recover astronauts. She is not only a quintessential engineer with a passion to build things, but also a “people engineer” who thrives on working with colleagues and customers. Gwynne Shotwell is helping to launch our future, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. _Sullivan is a former NASA astronaut_ Gwynne Shotwell Is on the 2020 TIME 100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888439/gwynne-shotwell/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888439/gwynne-shotwell/"},"headline":"Gwynne Shotwell","datePublished":"2020-09-22T22:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:17.096Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888439/gwynne-shotwell/","keywords":["TIME 100","T100 2020","T100 2020 Titans"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a691c48e982333a/698a1272e76ad285376381f4/time-100-Gwynne-Shotwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a691c48e982333a/698a1272e76ad285376381f4/time-100-Gwynne-Shotwell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888439/gwynne-shotwell/","name":"Gwynne Shotwell"}}]}] ```