42 - Gwynne Shotwell
Shotwell was employee No. 11 in 2002 when she joined SpaceX, a company founded to lower the cost of space travel and enable the colonization of other planets. Today, SpaceX has grown to more than 6,000 employees and contracts valued at $12 billion. Shotwell runs day-to-day operations and customer relationships, but her official title might as well be rainmaker. She takes CEO Elon Musk’s seemingly outlandish ideas (and idealistic timelines) and makes them happen: Achievements include the successful launch in February of SpaceX’s powerful, reusable Falcon Heavy rocket. Next up: a project to deliver high-bandwidth Internet via satellites; and the BFR, a next-generation rocket designed to whisk crew and cargo to Mars and reach any city on Earth in under an hour.
