Roelof Botha joins SpaceX’s board of directors
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Former Sequoia Captial managing partner Roelof Botha is joining SpaceX’s board of directors, less than a week after the company went public in the largest IPO ever.
SpaceX announced the appointment in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. It said Botha was appointed “to fill the existing vacancy on the Board” and that he will serve until SpaceX’s next annual shareholder meeting.” He will also join the SpaceX board’s audit committee. Botha didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Botha “brings extensive public company experience along with a deep audit committee background, having served on the boards and audit committees of numerous public companies,” SpaceX wrote in the filing. He stepped down from his role as Sequoia’s leader late last year.
Botha briefly overlapped with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk at PayPal in 2000. Botha started at the payments company in March of that year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Musk was pushed out as CEO of PayPal in September 200.
The addition of Botha brings SpaceX’s board to nine directors. He joins Musk confidants Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Steve Jurvetson, and Luke Nosek, SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell, as well as Google executive Donald Harrison, and VC Randy Glein. Musk is chairman of the board.
Botha has been with Sequoia for more than 20 years, and the firm invested in SpaceX in 2019. It reportedly owned 1.5% of SpaceX heading into the IPO, giving it a position worth more than $20 billion.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
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Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
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