Josh Giegel

Josh Giegel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Virgin Hyperloop where he is leading a world-class team of engineers making the hyperloop a reality. Giegel founded the company in 2014 when hyperloop was an idea drawn on a whiteboard in a garage. A little over two years later, VH built a full-scale prototype capturing the attention of governments worldwide. Today, Giegel is leading the development of paradigm-shifting electromagnetic, high power, autonomous technology, bridging the engineering work with unparalleled passenger experience, and working at the highest levels of government to develop a regulatory framework for hyperloop technology.

In November 2020, Giegel made history becoming one of the first passengers in the world to ride on a hyperloop. Previously, at SpaceX, Giegel developed the world’s first reusable rockets and led the successful testing of six different rocket engines. From the final frontier to the horizon right here on the ground, Giegel shifted his focus to power the earth with revolutionary waste heat-to-power energy technology, leading research activities at Echogen Power Systems. He is passionate about the power of engineering to create solutions that enable people to live their lives how they want – where they want - in a way that is sustainable. This led him to leverage his expertise in high-performance rocket engines with his grasp of clean energy generation to develop the world’s first autonomous, high-performance, electric mode of mass transportation.

Giegel received an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University where he was a Graduate Engineering Fellow. He holds a BSME from Penn State University where he graduated with honors and was first in his class.