Top talent departs Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as NASA lander fight escalates

[Elderberry]

CNBC by Michael Sheetz 8/20/2021

Key Points

•   Blue Origin has lost more than a dozen key leaders and top engineers this summer, CNBC has learned, with most leaving in the weeks after founder Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight.

•   Several of the engineers who left were part of Blue Origin’s astronaut lunar lander program. Earlier this year Blue Origin lost its bid for a valuable NASA development contract.

•   Shortly after Bezos’ spaceflight, Blue Origin gave all its full-time employees a $10,000, no-strings-attached cash bonus, multiple people familiar with the situation told CNBC.

Jeff Bezos flew to space late last month, but his company has lost top talent since the billionaire space founder came back to Earth.

More than a dozen key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.

Two of the engineers, Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, this week announced jobs at other space companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, respectively.

Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks.

Each unannounced departure was confirmed to CNBC by people familiar with the matter. Those departures include: New Shepard senior vice president Steve Bennett, chief of mission assurance Jeff Ashby (who retired), New Glenn senior director Bob Ess, New Glenn senior finance manager Bill Scammell, senior manager of production testing Christopher Payne, New Shepard technical project manager Nate Chapman, senior propulsion design engineer Dave Sanderson, senior HLS human factors engineer Rachel Forman, BE-4 lead integration and testing engineer Jack Nelson, New Shepard lead avionics software engineer Huong Vo, BE-7 avionics hardware engineer Aaron Wang, propulsion engineer Rex Gu, and rocket engine development engineer Gerry Hudak.

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-losing-top-talent-during-nasa-lander-fight.html

[Elderberry]

Top Employees Leave Blue Origin Due to Leadership Disappointment and Escalating Conflict with NASA

Tek Deeps August 20, 2021

https://tekdeeps.com/top-employees-leave-blue-origin-due-to-leadership-disappointment-and-escalating-conflict-with-nasa/

More than a dozen senior executives and senior engineers have left space company Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin this summer, CNBC reports. Employees who left the company did not provide specific reasons for their decisions, but did mention that they were frustrated with Blue Origin’s executive leadership and slow bureaucratic structure.

Blue Origin itself focuses on the fact that in 2020 its staff has grown by 850 people, and in 2021 by another 650. Nevertheless, the company is leaving the most valuable personnel. It is reported that some of the departed engineers were part of the team that is developing the lunar lander. New Shepard Senior Vice President Steve Bennet, Head of Space Mission Support Jeff Ashby, Senior Design Engineer Power Plant Dave Sanderson, Lead Software Engineer New Shepard Huong left Blue Origin Huong Vo, rocket engine engineer Gerry Hudak and many others.

Blue Origin, headquartered in Kent, Washington, employs about 4,000 people. It is reported that ten days after Bezos’s flight into space, Blue Origin has given all of its staff members a $ 10,000 bonus. The company said the bonus was intended as a thank you for reaching a milestone in launching humans into space. Some employees interpreted the move as a desperate attempt by management to encourage talented employees to stay with the company, as many employees filed for layoffs after launch.

[Elderberry]

Blue Origin lost at least 17 top staffers weeks after SpaceX was awarded the $2.9 billion NASA moon-lander contract, reports say

Business Insider by Kevin Shalvey 8/22/2021

https://www.yahoo.com/news/blue-origin-lost-least-17-094140974.html

•   Blue Origin lost about 17 high-level employees so far this year, CNBC reported.

•   Some of the staffers left after SpaceX won a NASA lunar contract.

•   Others left after Jeff Bezos went to space, Fox Business reported.

•   See more stories on Insider's business page.

At least 17 top staffers at Blue Origin left the company this year, with many departing in the weeks after founder Jeff Bezos flew into space, CNBC reported.

The news follows a report by Insider's Kate Duffy on Tuesday, which revealed that a lead engineer left to join Elon Musk's SpaceX.

As CNBC reported, this was not the only high-level departure. Many other engineers and key leaders have also left, it said.

Several of those departing had been part of the team that tried to land a high-profile NASA lunar contract, the outlet said.

Fox Business said it confirmed the departure of about a dozen employees.

[Gefn]

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