Rocket Lab has announced the appointment of Frank Klein as its new Chief Operations Officer (COO), effective September 16, 2024.
Frank Klein joins Rocket Lab with more than 30 years of international manufacturing experience and leadership in the automotive industry. At Rocket Lab, Klein will lead the company’s efforts to scale manufacturing of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and spacecraft components to meet the growing customer demand of more than a billion dollars of backlog orders.
Prior to joining the Rocket Lab team, Klein served Daimler AG (now Mercedes-Benz Group) for 27 years where he led various business divisions including Vehicle Research, Trucks, Cars and Van manufacturing. While Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Vans Operations, Klein managed global production across 12 production sites, heading up logistics, industrial engineering, and the division’s quality department, with responsibility for more than 14,000 employees globally.
Klein also served as President of Magna Steyr AG, the automotive industry’s largest independent contract manufacturer with an annual turnover of more than $6bn, where he led operations across three continents and 13,000 employees globally. Most recently Klein served as COO at Rivian Automative, where he helped to transform Rivian from a low-volume automotive start-up to a high-volume premium electric vehicle manufacturer while responsible for 9,000+ employees.
Sir Peter Beck, Founder and CEO, Rocket Lab, said: “Frank is an experienced and seasoned leader in manufacturing and global operations who will bring vision and a strong wealth of knowledge in lean manufacturing and scaling to Rocket Lab at a pivotal time in our evolution as an end-to-end space company. I’m excited to have him join the team and support our increased Electron launch and production cadence, operationalize Neutron, and strengthen our satellite and space systems divisions.”
Klein added: “I’m incredibly excited about Rocket Lab. This is an opportunity to leverage my deep experience and industry knowledge to cement efficient operations at the foundation of the Company’s scale and growth. I am very much looking forward to joining the Rocket Lab team and bringing the best in production and operations practice from the automotive industry and applying it to this innovative and fast-paced company leading the future of aerospace.”
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