Google executive Donald Harrison has stepped down from SpaceX’s board of directors after serving for more than a decade.
Reason for departure:
Elon Musk stated on X that Harrison stepped down due to an accumulation of “too many conflicts of interest with Alphabet”.
However, SpaceX clarified in regulatory filings that the resignation was amicable and not the result of any operational disagreements.
Background & tenure:
Harrison—who serves as Google’s president of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development originally joined the SpaceX board in 2015 when Alphabet made a major early investment in the company.
Harrison notified SpaceX of his resignation on November 4, and it took effect immediately
The Elon Musk-led company said Harrison’s decision to resign was not due to any disagreement with the company on matters relating to its operations, policies or practices
Harrison, a longtime executive at Google, is currently president of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development.
According to LSEG data, Google parent Alphabet is the largest single institutional holder of SpaceX.
Musk said that Harrison stepped down because there were too many conflicts of interest with Alphabet. “Don has been a great board member.
Very much appreciate his contributions,” Musk added in a post on X on Friday.
Google on Friday reported a small increase in its position in SpaceX to about 555 million shares from 551.2 million earlier.
Ongoing ties:
Despite his exit from the board, financial and commercial relationships remain deeply intact. Alphabet remains SpaceX’s largest institutional investor, and the two tech giants continue to partner on various high-tech and cloud/compute initiatives.
