Virgin Galactic announced on Monday that the former president of worldwide marketing for Warner Bros. is its new president and chief business officer.
Blair Rich will oversee the space tourism company's marketing, sales, business and product development, communications, operations and “customer experience,” a news release from Virgin Galactic says.
“It is a rare opportunity to build a business at the forefront of an entirely new industry. Working with the Virgin Galactic team over the past year has been incredible,” Rich said in a prepared statement. “We are creating a unique, emotional and deeply meaningful customer journey that will anchor our business.”
Rich previously spent 23 years at Warner Bros. Entertainment. She started as an intern and eventually took over a high-level marketing role, according to Virgin Galactic. Her appointment comes two weeks before Virgin Galactic’s fourth quarter and full-year 2021 investor call, scheduled for Feb. 22.
For the past year, Rich has been a consultant and strategic advisor to Virgin Galactic. That included marketing for billionaire founder Richard Branson’s spaceflight, according to the release.
Branson’s jaunt to space took place in July from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences. The event, which was covered by media from across the world, was followed by a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry into Branson’s flight, during which Virgin's spaceplane left its permitted airspace.
During its last quarterly call in November, Virgin CEO Michael Colglazier said: “While the FAA is always in our control room during flights, our flight test procedures did not have a specific protocol for mission control to communicate the situation to air traffic control in real time. And this required rectification.”
He also said the Las Cruces company plans to create more than 1,000 jobs as it develops its “Delta” line of spaceships designed to fly once per week.
Virgin Galactic plans to begin commercial operations in the fourth quarter of this year.
