George Whitesides, MPhil

ADVISORY COUNCIL

George Whitesides is the Chairman of the Space Advisory Board for Virgin Galactic. George was the first CEO of the company, growing the company over ten years from a small team to the global aerospace firm it is today.  Under George's leadership, the company flew the first human spaceflight from US soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle, flew the first woman to space on a commercial space vehicle, and went public on the New York Stock Exchange. George also oversaw the formation and growth of Virgin Orbit as CEO from its founding as a small team inside Galactic in 2011 to a 400 person operation that was spun out of Galactic in 2017.

Prior to Galactic and Orbit, George worked on President Obama's transition team in 2008, and subsequently served as NASA Chief of Staff for NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. George was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the agency’s highest honor, upon his departure in 2010.

George serves on a variety of philanthropic councils and boards, including Caltech's Space Innovation Council, Princeton's Advisory Council for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Science Advisory Board for Caltech’s Space Solar Power Initiative. He has co-chaired the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Space and the X PRIZE Space Brain Trust; chaired the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group for the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, and served as vice chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. 

George helped found the BLAST scholarship program to mentor Black aerospace student-leaders in partnership with UNCF, and serves as a mentor for the Isakowitz Fellowship program. He did his undergraduate degree with honors in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, an MPhil in GIS and Remote Sensing at Cambridge University, and a Fulbright Scholarship in Tunisia.