BECK
Peter

• 1. Career
• 2. Awards

Mr. Beck is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Lab. Since founding the company in 2006, Mr. Beck has grown it into a global organization that develops and launches advanced rockets, satellites and spacecraft. Mr. Beck has served on Rocket Lab's board of directors, and as its President and Chief Executive Officer since July 2013 and was appointed Chairman of the Board in May 2021. 

Career

From 2013, Mr. Beck led the development of the Electron launch vehicle, which was designed from the ground up to accommodate a high launch rate business model to meet the needs of customers for small launch services. Under Mr. Beck’s leadership, Rocket Lab pioneered advanced aerospace manufacturing techniques for Electron, including 3D printed rocket engines, electric-pump-fed rocket engines and fully carbon composite fuel tanks. Mr. Beck also led the development of our private orbital launch site, Launch Complex 1, located in Mahia, New Zealand, which required the establishment of an international treaty and legislation to enable Rocket Lab to use U.S. launch and spacecraft technology that otherwise would not be permitted for launches from foreign soil.

Prior to founding Rocket Lab, Mr. Beck began his career in 1993 with an apprenticeship as precision engineer at global appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel, before moving into production machinery design, product design and analysis. He later went to a government research institute in 2003 where he focused on advanced composites structures and materials for high performance applications. While at the government lab, Mr. Beck led several complex engineering programs to optimize technologies including wind turbines and superconductors. In his own time, Mr. Beck began building rockets at an early age, steadily increasing their size and complexity. In 2006, Mr. Beck founded Rocket Lab and led its efforts to successfully launch Atea-1 in 2009, which we believe is the first commercially-developed rocket to reach space from the Southern Hemisphere.

Awards

An award-winning engineer, Mr. Beck has been presented with the Gold Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society, Meritorious Medal from the New Zealand Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Cooper Medal and Pickering Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. In addition, in recognition of Mr. Beck’s outstanding contributions to aerospace, entrepreneurship and technical innovation he was appointed as an adjunct professor in aerospace engineering by the University of Auckland.