Retired Jeff Bezos now aims for the stars

Freed from his daily obligations at Amazon.com Inc, Jeff Bezos is expected to turn up the heat on his space venture, Blue Origin, as it faces a pivotal year and fierce competition from Elon Musk’s Spacex, industry sources said.

The 57-year-old Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast and the world’s second-richest person behind Musk, said last week he is stepping down as chief executive of the e-commerce company as he looks to focus on personal projects.

Blue Origin has fallen far behind Spacex on orbital transportation, and lost out to Spacex and United Launch Alliance (ULA) on billions of dollars’ worth of US national security launch contracts which begin in 2022. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp. Now, Blue Origin is battling to win a competition with Spacex and Dynetics to develop a new lunar lander for NASA’S potentially multibillion-dollar push to return humans to the moon in a few years. Dynetics is owned by Leidos Holdings Inc.

Winning the lunar lander contract - and executing its development - are seen by Bezos and other executives as vital to Blue Origin establishing itself as a desired partner for NASA, and also putting Blue on the road to turning a profit, the people said.

With limited revenue streams, Bezos has been liquidating about $1 billion of Amazon stock annually to fund Blue, which he said in 2018 was “the most important work that I’m doing.”

A Blue Origin representative declined to comment, but pointed to comments Bezos made last week when he said he was stepping down as Amazon’s chief executive. He told Amazon employees he would “stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives” but also devote time to Blue Origin and various philanthropic and media “passions.”

NASA is expected to winnow the lunar lander contest to just two companies by the end of April, adding pressure as Blue Origin works through problems such as wasting millions of dollars on procurement, and technical and production challenges, the sources said.

One of the development struggles Blue has faced is getting the lander light and small enough to fit on a commercially available rocket, two people briefed on the development said.

Another source, however, said Blue has modified its design since it was awarded the initial contract last April and that its current design fits on an additional number of available and forthcoming rockets, including Musk’s Falcon Heavy and ULA’S Vulcan.

“He is going to kick Blue Origin into a higher gear,” said one senior industry source with knowledge of Blue’s operations.

Bezos already has transplanted Amazon’s culture on Blue, down to enforcing similar “leadership principles” and kicking off meetings by reading documents in silence, sources say.

But one industry veteran said Bezos needs to take a hands-on, operational role if he is going to fix a number of problems like bureaucratic processes, missed deadlines, high overhead and engineer turnover which, according to this source, have emerged as Blue Origin seeks to transition from development to production across multiple programs.

In his latest Instagram posts, Bezos is seen climbing into a crew capsule wearing cowboy boots, and sitting in his pickup truck watching a rocket engine test, which he described as a “perfect night!”

Founded in 2000, Blue Origin, based in Kent, Washington, has expanded to around 3 500 employees, with sprawling manufacturing and launch facilities.

THE 34th summit of the AU now under way has a significant job: to elect six commissioners to the AU’S secretariat – a vital cog in the union.

The AU Commission reports to the executive council, which develops policy and oversees implementation of the decisions of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

The election of the six commissioners will signal two things – how serious the AU is about putting in place a strong team to drive institutional reforms, and how strong is its commitment to implement gender parity.

The AU will also be deciding on the chair and deputy chair positions. Since incumbent chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat is the only candidate for the position, attention is on who becomes the deputy – effectively the commission’s chief operating officer.

The appointment is also piquing interest because of African leaders’ commitment to push for gender equality. Five out of the eight nominees to the position in this round are women.

The deputy chair implements and manages reform at the AU. The AU’S reform journey began in July 2016 when the assembly appointed Rwandan president Paul Kagame to do a study on its institutional reform. The assessment was unequivocal; the union was not fit for purpose.

Several reforms were approved and significant progress made , but a significant amount of work still needs to be done to overcome dysfunctionalities.

Beyond gender, the commissioners must also satisfy regional considerations. The deputy chairperson is responsible for the financial and administrative management of the commission and should thus have substantive political acumen and extensive experience in financial administration plus a vast network, both continentally and internationally, for consensus building to drive reform.

The incumbent will also have to address institutional reform challenges.

Kagame’s report noted inadequate supervision and co-ordination as well as weak staff recruitment and performance management systems. Considerable progress has been made, but gaps remain. The commission has been bedevilled by accusations of sex and gender-based discrimination. It falls on the deputy chairperson to ensure a safe environment for women.

As for the quest for AU financial autonomy significant strides have been made, minimising its overdependence on external partners. But to sustain the gains, the commission must encourage member states to pay their AU membership fees on time. Most of the progress on financial autonomy has been on generating its own resources. But financing peace operations remains unresolved. The main stumbling block here is agreement between the AU and the UN. To resolve the impasse, the deputy chairperson must have a deep understanding of the UN’S budgeting systems – critical to ensure that Africa is allotted its due share of resources to maintain peace and security.

Finally, the deputy chairperson will have to work closely with member states and commission staff. The person must thus be perceived by member states, the international community and AU Commission staff to have integrity and credibility.

Given all the challenges facing the AU and the need to make progress towards its Agenda 2063 goals, African leaders must vote for the most competent and credible candidates while sticking to gender equality and parity.