Former Sequoia Capital CEO Roelof Botha is joining SpaceX’s board, less than a week after the company went public in its biggest-ever IPO.
SpaceX was announced the appointment to be filed with the Capital Market Commission on Wednesday. It said Botha was appointed “to fill the existing vacancy on the Board of Directors” and will serve until SpaceX’s next annual meeting of shareholders. He will also serve on SpaceX’s audit committee. Botha did not 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 as the firm faced a backlash against partner Shaun Maguire, who had made comments against then-New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
SpaceX’s filing also reveals that a “family member” of Botha has been working at the company “since January 2025 as a member of the operations team.” SpaceX says this family member’s compensation “exceeded the $120,000 benchmark,” but noted that the compensation is “generally commensurate with their peers.”
Botha sits on many public company boards, but none quite like SpaceX, where CEO Elon Musk enjoys near-total control and shareholders have little power. Musk has more than 80% of the now-public company’s voting power, and SpaceX stockholders will have very limited opportunities to challenge him if they disagree with his actions. Musk is also in control of all changes to the makeup of the board, filings show.
However, Botha has experience with Musk. Musk brought in Botha — who is also from South Africa — to run PayPal’s finance department in 2000. Botha started at the payments company in March of that year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Musk was fired as CEO of PayPal in September 2000.
“I’ve known Elon for over 25 years,” Botha said Luck last year in an interview when Musk was running DOGE. “He was the first person to offer me a job in America. He believed in me when I was an unknown student at Stanford. I really appreciate and understand that he’s not perfect. None of us are. He cares deeply about doing the right thing.”
Botha’s addition brings SpaceX’s board to nine directors. He joins Musk confidants Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Steve Jurvetson and Luke Nosek. SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell. Google executive Donald Harrison. and VC Randy Glein. Musk is chairman of the board.
Botha has worked with Sequoia for more than 20 years, and the company invested in SpaceX in 2019. According to property 1.5% of SpaceX is headed to the IPO, giving it a position valued at more than $20 billion.
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