A place to see good, share good, and do good.

Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South Africa-born, Canadian American business magnate, engineer and investor. He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and chief product architect of Tesla Motors, and chairman of SolarCity. He is the founder of SpaceX and a cofounder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and Zip2. He has also envisioned a conceptual high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop.

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian-English mother and prominent model Maye Musk and a South African-born British father and electrical/mechanical engineer Errol Musk. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in locations in South Africa.

He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School and moving to Canada in 1988 at age 17, after obtaining Canadian citizenship through his mother. He did so before his South African military service, reasoning that it would be easier to emigrate to the United States from Canada than from South Africa.
At age 19, Musk was accepted into Queens University in Kingston, Ontario for undergraduate study, and in 1992, after spending two years at Queen's University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he eventually received a bachelor's of science degree in economics from the Wharton School. Musk stayed on a year to finish his second bachelor's degree, a bachelor's of arts degree in physics.

INTERESTING ELON MUSK FACTS...

He taught himself computer programming and at age 12 sold the computer code for a video game called Blastar for $500.

In 1995, aged 24, Musk moved to California to begin a PhD in applied physics at Stanford, but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the Internet, renewable energy and outer space.

Musk became an American citizen in 2002.

In 1995, Musk started Zip2, a web software company, with his brother, Kimbal. Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options in 1999. Musk received 7% or $22 million from the sale.

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which operated a subsidiary called PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which $165 million was given to Musk. Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.

With $100 million of his early fortune,[citation needed] Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), in June 2002.

In 2014, NASA has awarded the highly-anticipated space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX, a move which will end the agency’s reliance on Russian technology to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. During the press conference, Lueders explained that NASA's deals with Boeing and SpaceX are worth $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

TESLA MOTORS:

The company was co-founded by Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel, Ian Wright, and Musk. Tesla arose from a chance meeting between Straubel and Musk in 2004, a year after the company's initial incorporation in 2003. In this meeting Musk learned about the electric sports car demo from AC Propulsion. He tried to get them to develop it into a commercial electric car, but they weren't interested, so he and JB Straubel joined the other cofounders to create Tesla Motors. Musk provided most of the Series A funding necessary to turn Tesla from a business plan to a reality and service as Chairman and head of product design and engineering for the Roadster and later the Model S. Straubel led powertrain engineering Other Series A investments groups included SDL Ventures and Compass Technology Partners. Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today.

In a press release and conference call and blog on June 12, 2014 that the company will allow its technology patents for use by anyone in good faith, in a bid to entice automobile manufacturers to speed up development of electric cars. "The unfortunate reality is electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn't burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales," he said at the time.

SOLAR CITY:

Musk provided the initial concept for SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive.[61][62] Musk remains the largest shareholder. The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and Tesla is to help combat global warming.

HYPERLOOP:

On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a proposal for a new form of transportation between the Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area, after being disappointed with the approved California High-Speed Rail system. After envisioning Hyperloop, Musk assigned a dozen engineers from Tesla Motors and SpaceX who worked for nine months, establishing the conceptual foundations and creating the designs for the transportation system.

PHILANTHROPY:

Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, paediatric health, and clean energy. In 2010, the foundation created a program focused on donating solar-power systems for critical needs in disaster areas. The first such solar-power installation was donated to a hurricane response center in Alabama that had been neglected by state and federal aid. To make it clear that this program was not serving Musk's own commercial interests, SolarCity noted that it had no presence or planned business activity in that state.

Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project in 2001, which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith. Ultimately Musk ended up founding SpaceX with the long-term goal of creating a true spacefaring civilization.
In April 2012, Musk joined The Giving Pledge, offering an ethical commitment to donate the majority of his fortune to philanthropic causes. Musk became a member of the campaign first popularised by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates with a class of 12 of America's wealthiest families and individuals.

(references: Wikipedia and FOX NEWS online)
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/09/16/nasa-awards-space-taxi-contract/

*Elon Musk Speaks About Tesla and SpaceX at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit *