PLACE OF BIRTH: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
TITLE: COFOUNDER AND CEO OF TESLA; FOUNDER AND CEO OF SPACEX; AND CHAIRMAN OF SOLARCITY
IMPACT: FOLLOWING A TOUGH CHILDHOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA, ELON MUSK MOVED TO CANADA to attend college and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He founded his first tech company, a city directory service called Zip2, in 1995 when he was just 24; four years later he founded X.com, which would go on to become PayPal. Success begat success, and Musk now helms private space company SpaceX and electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, and is the chairman of solar power company SolarCity. One of the most widely known tech entrepreneurs in the world, Musk sees his job as preserving the future of humanity by creating clean power, clean transportation and an insurance policy of sorts by making us a multiplanetary species. Musk’s ultimate goal is to colonize Mars as a hedge against the effects of global warming or nuclear war.
TITLE: COFOUNDER AND CEO OF TESLA; FOUNDER AND CEO OF SPACEX; AND CHAIRMAN OF SOLARCITY
IMPACT: FOLLOWING A TOUGH CHILDHOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA, ELON MUSK MOVED TO CANADA to attend college and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He founded his first tech company, a city directory service called Zip2, in 1995 when he was just 24; four years later he founded X.com, which would go on to become PayPal. Success begat success, and Musk now helms private space company SpaceX and electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, and is the chairman of solar power company SolarCity. One of the most widely known tech entrepreneurs in the world, Musk sees his job as preserving the future of humanity by creating clean power, clean transportation and an insurance policy of sorts by making us a multiplanetary species. Musk’s ultimate goal is to colonize Mars as a hedge against the effects of global warming or nuclear war.
Photo by Justin Chin/Getty Images
