Roelof Botha joins SpaceX’s Board of Directors

Roelof Botha, former managing partner of Sequoia Captial, has joined SpaceX’s board of directors, less than a week after the company went public in its largest initial public offering ever.

SpaceX announced the appointment in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. It said Botha had been appointed “to fill the current vacancy on the board of directors” and would serve until SpaceX’s next annual shareholder meeting. He will also join the Audit Committee of the SpaceX Board of Directors. Botha did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Botta has extensive public company experience along with a deep audit committee background, having served on boards and audit committees at numerous public companies,” SpaceX wrote in the filing. He resigned as Sequoia’s leader late last year as the company was dealing with backlash against partner Sean Maguire, who made comments attacking then-New York City mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani.

Botha sits on many public company boards, but none quite like SpaceX, where CEO Elon Musk has near-absolute control and shareholders have little power. Musk has more than 80% of the voting power in the public company now, and SpaceX stockholders will have very limited opportunities to challenge him if they disagree with his actions. Musk also controls all changes to the board’s composition, the filings show.

However, Botha has experience with Musk. Musk brought on Botha — also from South Africa — to run PayPal’s finance division 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 told Fortune last year in an interview while 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 have a lot of appreciation and understanding that he’s not perfect. None of us are. He cares deeply about doing the right thing.”

With the addition of Botha, SpaceX’s board of directors reaches nine members. He joins Musk’s confidants Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Steve Jurvetson, Luke Nosek, SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, as well as Google CEO Donald Harrison and VC Randy Glein. Musk is the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Botha has been with Sequoia for more than 20 years, and the company 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.