As Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR) prepares to become one of the first private companies to land on the moon next year, the Houston-based company is making some leadership changes here on Earth.
Intuitive Machines said this week that Peter McGrath would be promoted to become the company’s first chief operating officer, effective Jan. 2, 2024. McGrath joined Intuitive Machines in 2020 and has served as vice president of business development.
Prior to joining the company, McGrath worked at The Boeing Co., where he was most recently the director of global sales and marketing at the Arlington, Virginia-based aviation giant.
According to an 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McGrath will take a base annual salary of $375,000 and will be eligible to participate in Intuitive Machines’ incentive plan.
Other leadership changes at Intuitive Machines include the departure of CFO Erik Sallee, who informed the company he was leaving due to personal and family matters, as well as a desire to pursue other business opportunities. Intuitive Machines promoted Steven Vontur, currently the company’s controller and principal accounting officer, to serve as interim CFO. Vontur will continue to hold his post as controller, according to the company’s filing.
Vontur joined Intuitive Machines in 2022 from Irvine, California-based Shimmick Construction Company Inc. He also previously worked at California-based Research Connections Inc. and Ernst and Young LLP. According to his LinkedIn, Vontur worked at Houston-based KBR (NYSE: KBR) from 2004 to 2020.
Vontur will become Intuitive Machines’ interim CFO beginning Jan. 26, 2024. The company said in its Dec. 26 filing that Vontur’s annual base salary would increase to $300,000 and he would receive a one-time award of 25,000 restricted stock units. Intuitive Machines is also beginning a search for a new permanent CFO.
In addition to its leadership changes, Intuitive Machines also announced a strategic partnership this week with South Korea-based health care investment firm, Boryung Co. According to Intuitive Machines’ announcement, the two companies will discuss critical infrastructure that could lead to a research campaign on how humans live and work in space.
“We believe the IM and Boryung partnership will direct the next wave of innovation in the human health research and health care journey by operating in deep space, and collecting essential data on combined gravity/radiation environmental effects for commercial sale,” said Steve Altemus, Intuitive Machines co-founder and CEO, in the company’s news release.
Earlier this year, Boryung co-led one of the largest space investment deals in Texas in 2023. Together with Saudi Arabia-based Aljazira Capital, Boryung raised a $350 million Series C round for fellow Houston-based spaceflight company Axiom Space in August. Both Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines were co-founded by Kam Ghaffarian.
Intuitive Machines went public in February after completing a blank-check merger with Inflection Acquisition Corp. that was announced last year. Following its debut on the market, the company completed its $40 million Lunar Operations and Production Center in September. The center shipped Intuitive Machines’ first Nova Lunar Lander to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it is anticipated to fly to the moon aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission.
