Stoke Space Appoints Kevin Weil to Board of Directors

KENT, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stoke Space today announced that technology executive Kevin Weil has joined its board of directors. Weil brings deep product leadership experience as the company continues developing Nova, its fully reusable, medium-lift launch vehicle.

Weil has spent more than two decades building category-defining technology companies and products. He has held senior leadership roles at OpenAI, Planet Labs, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, helping shape product strategy and development for platforms used by billions of people worldwide. He was part of the management teams that took Twitter and Planet public and helped scale products including Instagram and ChatGPT into global platforms. Most recently, he served as vice president of science at OpenAI, where he focused on applying artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.

"Kevin has built and scaled some of the world's most important technology companies through periods of extraordinary innovation and growth," said Andy Lapsa, co-founder and CEO of Stoke Space. "He understands how to transform breakthrough technologies into enduring businesses, build organizations that scale, and guide companies through pivotal moments of growth. As Stoke moves toward commercial operations, his experience will be invaluable as we advance our vision for fully and rapidly reusable space transportation."

“The next era of space transportation will be defined not only by technical breakthroughs, but also by the ability to make access to space dramatically more reliable, affordable, and routine,” said Weil. “Stoke has assembled one of the strongest engineering teams in aerospace and is pursuing a bold vision for full reusability. I’m excited to join the board and help the company scale its technology, operations, and business.”

Weil earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude, and a master’s degree in physics from Stanford University. He also serves on the boards of Cisco and The Nature Conservancy and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

About Stoke Space

Stoke is scaling the space economy by providing low-cost, on-demand transport to, through, and from space. It’s developing the fully and rapidly reusable Nova rocket and other space vehicles designed to operate with aircraft-like frequency. Stoke’s technology development has been funded by the United States Space Force, DIU, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other government and private partners.