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#gwynneshotwell 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!