Elon Musk

One of the most famous businessmen and inventors on the planet, Elon Musk has had a remarkable career including founding the world-renowned Tesla Motors company and being CEO of SpaceX which builds rockers and spacecrafts. The work Elon has done to advance technology has been acknowledged globally winning numerous awards and featuring in the 2010 TIME magazine list of influential people and the 2023 Time 100 Most Influential People in AI.

From a young age, Elon’s ambition was clear. Born in South Africa, he attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating with a degree in physics. In 1995 he then achieved a PHD in applied physics and materials science from the world-renowned Stanford University. In 1999, he founded the online financing company X.com which soon merged with a business called Confinity. In 2001 the now merged organisation rebranded and became PayPal the now extremely popular money transfer company. When the company was sold in 2002, Elon received in excess of $165million.

Elon is highly regarded for his work in the space exploration world and in 2002 founded SpaceX which develops rockets and spacecrafts with the long-term goal to make it possible for humans to live on other planets. So far SpaceX has been extremely successful creating the first ever privately developed liquid fuel rocket.

They continued to make history with their Dragon spacecraft becoming the first commercial company to attach a craft to the International Space Station. In 2008 they were awarded a contract by NASA to provide cargo flights from the Space Station and are in the process of becoming the first privately owned company to transport NASA astronauts. These successes have left Elon with a wealth of knowledge and experience on the topic and he is a fascinating after-dinner speaker whose passion on the subject is clear to see during all his events.

In 2004 Elon joined Tesla Motors board of directors before becoming CEO of the company in 2011 after a financial crisis. Actively involved in trying to combat climate change the business only produces electric cars. The role allows Elon to demonstrate his excellent engineering qualities and he oversees all the strategy within the company. He also co-founded SolarCity in 2006 which is now one of the largest solar panel organisations in the world.

The motivation behind his involvement with Tesla and SolarCity is to try and find solutions to global warming an issue Elon is extremely passionate about. This is demonstrated during all his after-dinner speaking bookings as he is more than happy to provide his views on the subject and offer ways all of us can contribute to save the planet. An extremely versatile entrepreneur who has made a significant impact in both space exploration and in battling climate change through his business exploits, Elon can provide a real edge to your event.