Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-12-07)

ecember7, 2020

GWYNNESHOTWELL

PRESIDENTAND COO,

SPACEX

HAWTHORNE,CALIF.○ InMay,SpaceXbecame

thefirstprivatecompanytosendAmericanastronauts

intospace.

ElonMuskfoundedSpaceExplorationTechnologiesCorp.in 2002withthegoal

ofrevolutionizingspacetravelandmakinglifemultiplanetary;Shotwell,who

overseesday-to-dayoperationsandgrowth,wasoneofhisearliestemployees.

BeforebeingintroducedtoMusk,shespenta decadeatAerospaceCorp.,a

largedefensecontractor,thena fewyearsatMicrocosmInc.,a privatespace

startupthatdesignsandbuildslow-costrocketsandrocketparts.

In2012,SpaceXbecamethefirstprivatecompanytodelivercargotoand

fromtheInternationalSpaceStation.Then,thisMay30,afteryearsofworking

withNASAandlearningfromcargorunsandcountlesssafetytests,SpaceX

madehistory:ItsFalcon9 rocketcarryingitsCrewDragoncapsulewithBob

BehnkenandDougHurleyaboardblastedofffromtheKennedySpaceCenter

inFloridaat3:22p.m.,boundforthespacestation.Theastronautsreturned

onAug.2,splashingdownsafelyintheGulfofMexico.“Thisis reallyjustthe

beginning,”Shotwellsaidata newsconferenceafterward.“We’restarting

thejourneyofbringingpeopleregularlytoandfromlowEarthorbitandon

tothemoonandthenultimatelyontoMars.”—DanaHull

59

RELAX! WE DIDN’T

FORGET ABOUT ...

THE USUAL

SUSPECTS

Yes, we’re aware of Tesla, and
no, we didn’t overlook Trump.
(How could we?) We just
figured that putting certain
names on the Bloomberg 50
wouldn’t surprise anyone, so
we gave the most predictably
notable people their own list.

WILLIAM BARR
U.S. attorney general

AMY CONEY
BARRETT
Associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme
Court

JEFF BEZOS
CEO, Amazon.com
Inc.

JOE BIDEN
President-elect of the
U.S.

JAIR BOLSONARO
President of Brazil

SERGEY BRIN
Co-director, Alphabet
Inc.

WARREN BUFFETT
Chairman and CEO,
Berkshire Hathaway
Inc.

TIM COOK
CEO, Apple Inc.

POPE FRANCIS

LEBRON JAMES
Forward,
Los Angeles Lakers

BORIS JOHNSON
Prime minister of the
U.K.

KIM JONG UN
Supreme leader
of North Korea

EMMANUEL

MACRON

President of France

MITCH

MCCONNELL

Majority leader of

the U.S. Senate

ANGELA MERKEL

Chancellor of

Germany

NARENDRA MODI

Prime minister of

India

RUPERT MURDOCH

Co-chairman, Fox

Corp.

ELON MUSK

CEO, Tesla Inc.

and SpaceX

ALEXANDRIA

OCASIO-CORTEZ

Member of the U.S.

House of

Representatives

LARRY PAGE

Co-director, Alphabet

NANCY PELOSI

Speaker of the U.S.

House of

Representatives

VLADIMIR PUTIN

President of Russia

MASAYOSHI SON

CEO, SoftBank

Group Corp.

DONALD TRUMP

President of the U.S.

XI JINPING

President of the

People’s Republic of

China

MARK

ZUCKERBERG

Chairman and CEO,

Facebook Inc.

LAGOS, NIGERIA ○

The tech-savvy Nigerians

raised almost 148 million

naira ($388,000) in two

weeks to support protests

against police brutality

and corruption.

Eweniyi and Odufuwa are

friends who work in finan-

cial tech. After starting

an organization in 2018

to bring women together

to socialize, they formed

the Feminist Coalition in

July to champion equal-

ity in Nigeria. By October

the 13-member group,

which includes journalists,

activists, lawyers, and cre-

atives, had thrown its sup-

port behind a long-running

call to disband a national police unit,

the Special Anti-Robbery Squad,

with a history of abuse. SARS was

disbanded, but peaceful protests

demanding reforms were met with

government crackdowns that left

more than 50 dead. As the protests

gained steam, the coalition used

social media to mobilize 600 law-

yers to give legal aid to the hundreds

arrested. —Yinka Ibukun

ODUNAYO

EWENIYI&

DAMILOLA

ODUFUWA

CO-FOUNDERS,

THEFEMINIST

COALITION