Blue Origin’s senior vice president of operations is leaving “for personal reasons,” according to an internal e-mail seen by Reuters, the third executive departure to be disclosed in less than a month at Jeff Bezos’ space company as it aims to sharpen its competitive footing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told employees in an e-mail on Friday that Mike Eilola, the company’s senior vice president of operations since 2021, “is leaving the company for personal reasons” on Nov. 3 and will have his unit split into two new organizations.
Eilola’s departure follows plans announced last month by Bezos to replace Smith, who has been Blue Origin’s CEO since 2017, with long-time Amazon executive Dave Limp by the end of the year. And Brent Sherwood, the head of what had been the company’s research and development unit, will depart next month, Reuters has reported.
Eilola oversaw Blue Origin’s supply chain, manufacturing apparatus and the company’s vast network of facilities across the United States, as the company reaches the late stages of developing its next-generation New Glenn rocket.
“Effective immediately,” Smith’s e-mail said, the operations unit will split into a new manufacturing and supply chain operations organization and a facilities, maintenance and security team.
Blue Origin did not immediately return a request for comment.