Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., a professional spaceflight business backed by billionaire Richard Branson, has named Sarah Kim its main lawful officer and corporate secretary.
Kim, who has been general counsel for the newly-merged Topgolf Callaway Models Inc., will just take on all those roles as of Dec. 5, Virgin Galactic announced this week. She succeeds former legal main Michelle Kley, who still left Virgin Galactic in July.
“As an individual who has a lifelong curiosity in the sciences and place, I simply cannot wait around to assistance participate in a function in the future of this transformative and quickly increasing market,” Kim stated in a assertion.
The spaceflight field, whose main players contain Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin LLC and Elon Musk’s House Exploration Systems Corp., has been choosing in-household legal professionals to tackle legal and regulatory worries.
Tustin, Calif.-primarily based Virgin Galactic claimed before this thirty day period that it expects to commence business spaceflights by the second quarter of 2023, getting earlier delayed exams and a approach to carry its founder Branson into orbit.
Branson eventually blasted off in July 2021 but the company’s share selling price fell following its most current flight postponement in August.
Virgin Galactic faces shareholder litigation above a merger with a unique goal acquisition company that took it public a few several years in the past. About a quarter of Branson’s approximated $5.2 billion fortune is invested in organizations that went community employing these automobiles, in accordance to Bloomberg Information.
Topgolf Callaway, in which Kim labored right before joining Virgin Galactic, was fashioned final yr just after predecessor Callaway Golf Co. agreed to pay back $2 billion to purchase the relaxation of what it did not already possess in Topgolf Worldwide Inc.
Brian Lynch, Topgolf Callaway’s main economic officer and a previous standard counsel at Callaway Golfing, also now serves as the combined company’s main lawful officer, according to its executive administration webpage.
A securities filing by Callaway Golf before this year unveiled that Lynch received a $4 million reward for his do the job serving to the Carlsbad, Calif.-based mostly company comprehensive its acquire of Topgolf. Callaway Golfing place Lynch’s overall compensation at practically $8.4 million all through fiscal 2021, in accordance to a proxy statement.
Topgolf’s former best attorney remaining the enterprise ahead of that offer in mid-2020.
Callaway Golf employed Kim in 2019 just after she put in two several years at what is now Petco Wellness and Wellness Co. The former DLA Piper affiliate was also Callaway Golf’s main ethics and compliance officer and company secretary.
Topgolf Callaway and Lynch did not react to requests for comment.
