A real life Tony Stark. A claim often used to describe Elon Musk. Since the founding and success of PayPal, he has moved on to establish spacecraft developer SpaceX, and electric car maker Tesla Motors. The cars developed at Tesla are proof that electric vehicles need not be stodgy and boring, providing a gateway for future development of sustainable vehicles. Musk’s interest in sustainable human development also led to the founding of Musk Foundation, dedicated in part to the discovery of renewable and clean energy sources. Read more

View from TED:

Elon Musk is the chief designer for SpaceX, overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets. In 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft won the NASA contract to provide a commercial replacement for the cargo transport function of the space shuttle. In 2012, SpaceX became the first commercial company to dock with the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth with the Dragon.

At Tesla, Musk has overseen product development and design from the beginning, including the all-electric Tesla Roadster, Model S and Model X, and overseeing the rollout of Supercharger stations to keep the cars juiced up. (Some of the charging stations use solar energy systems from SolarCity, of which Musk is the non-executive chair.) Transitioning to a sustainable energy economy, in which electric vehicles play a pivotal role, has been one of his central interests for almost two decades. He co-founded PayPal and served as the company’s chair and CEO.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/elon_musk.html

Bio from biography.com

Elon Musk was born in South Africa and became a multimillionaire in his late twenties when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. He went on to more early success launching PayPal via a 2000 merger, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in 2002, and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk made headlines in May 2012 when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station.

“I’m very pro-environment, but let’s figure out how to do it better and not jump through a dozen hoops to achieve what is obvious in the first place.”

– Elon Musk

Early Life

Elon Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, buying his first computer at age 10. He taught himself how to program, and when he was 12 he made his first software sale—of a game he created called Blaster. At age 17, in 1989, he moved to Canada to attend Queen’s College, but he left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor’s degree in physics.

After leaving Penn, Elon Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation.

An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new Web sites of both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and in 1999, a division of Compaq Computer bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

An Earnest Entrepreneur

Also in 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services/payments company. An X.com acquisition the following year led to the creation of PayPal as it is known today, and in October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well-established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station—with plans for astronaut transport in the future—in a move to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions.

Another Musk venture is Tesla Motors, an automobile company dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars, which he co-founded in 2003. With a stake in the company taken by Daimler and a strategic partnership with Toyota, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering in June 2010, raising $226 million.

The boundless potential of space exploration and the preservation of the future of the human race have become the cornerstones of Musk’s abiding interests, and toward these he has founded the Musk Foundation, which is dedicated to space exploration and the discovery of renewable and clean energy sources.

Preparing for Lift-Off

On May 22, 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, and it is the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Of the launch, Musk was quoted as saying, “I feel very lucky. . . . For us, it’s like winning the Super Bowl.”

Source: www.biography.com

SolarCity Opens its Largest U.S. Operations Center in Riverside, California

New Facility Will Service Inland Empire, Brings Jobs to the Region

RIVERSIDE, Calif., April 30, 2013—SolarCity® (Nasdaq: SCTY), a leading provider of clean energy, has opened its largest U.S. operations center in Riverside to accommodate growing demand in the Inland Empire. The 35,000-square-foot facility is staffed by 75 employees and currently has 20 additional job openings, and SolarCity expects to hire 50 additional employees in the area this year. SolarCity has grown to become the largest rooftop distributed energy company in California and in the U.S. by making it possible for customers to install solar panels for free and pay less for renewable, solar electricity than they pay for their utility bills.

“We look forward to creating more local jobs as we expand our services for homeowners and businesses,” said Jim Cahill, SolarCity’s regional vice president of operations for Southern California. “Riverside alone has 277 sunny days per year, which is nearly 40 percent more than the national average, so solar power production in the Inland Empire region is excellent.”

SolarCity provides energy services to more than 2,500 customers through its Inland Empire operations center, including Walmart stores in Corona, Temecula, Palm Desert and the Moreno Valley; the Barstow and Murrieta Valley Unified School Districts; the U.S. Bank branch in Rancho Cucamonga; and the First Assembly of God in Lake Elsinore.

Homeowners and businesses in the Inland Empire who are interested in SolarCity’s services can contact the company directly at 1-888-SOL-CITY (1-888-765-2489) for a free, no-obligation solar consultation or visit SolarCity online at www.solarcity.com/request. Candidates interested in available employment opportunities in the Inland Empire can contact SolarCity via its online jobs form at www.solarcity.com/jobs

About SolarCity

SolarCity® (NASDAQ: SCTY) provides clean energy. The company has disrupted the century-old energy industry by providing renewable electricity directly to homeowners, businesses and government organizations for less than they spend on utility bills. SolarCity gives customers control of their energy costs to protect them from rising rates. The company offers solar power, energy efficiency and electric vehicle services, and makes clean energy easy by taking care of everything from design and permitting to monitoring and maintenance. SolarCity currently serves 14 states and signs a new customer every five minutes. Visit the company online at www.solarcity.com and follow the company on Facebook & Twitter.