Gary Lai is currently a Senior Director of Program Management at Blue Origin, overseeing all upgrades and next generation designs for the New Shepard human spaceflight program. He joined Blue Origin in 2004 as one of its first 20 employees and has filled key leadership roles in growing the company to over 3,500 employees. His prior positions at Blue Origin include Senior Director of New Shepard Design Engineering, New Shepard System Architect, Crew Capsule Element Lead, NASA Commercial Crew Development Program Manager, Lead Systems Engineer, and Pathfinding Lead with responsibility for all company advanced research and development.