Joe Brennan is the director of production operations of The Spaceship Company, which was founded by Branson’s Virgin Group in a joint venture with Scaled Composites. TSC is an aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and carrier aircraft.

A mechanical engineer with an MBA, Brennan came home from work one day to find an email from a recruiter asking if he was interested in a new position.

When he saw the job description and location, Brennan said he knew at once who the recruiter was working for -- Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company.

Branson is building the first commercial space travel company for private passengers to fly where only astronauts have gone before.

Before TSC, Brennan was working for a composites manufacturer in the San Diego area, where he helped produce prototypes and products for the aerospace and defense industry.

After earning a mechanical engineering degree, Brennan took a job with Boeing working on what would become the aerospace company’s 787 plane.

He wanted to get into the field of aerospace, more specifically composites -- fabricated materials that are stronger and lighter weight than their metal counterparts.

After working at Boeing, Brennan realized he wanted to work at a smaller company that would give him a broader perspective so he accepted a job at Quatro Composites in the San Diego area.