Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk FRS born on June 28, 1971, is a business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO, and chief designer of SpaceX, early investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc. Founder of The Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. A centibillionaire, Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021.

Early life and education

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa. His mother is Maye Musk, a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa. His father is Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer. He has a younger brother, Kimbal (born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974). His maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian. His paternal grandmother had British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in the suburbs of Pretoria, a choice he made two years after the divorce and subsequently regretted. Musk has become estranged from his father, whom he has described as "a terrible human being... Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done." He has a half-sister and a half-brother on his father's side. Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa. At the age of 10, he developed an interest in computing while using the Commodore VIC-20. He learned computer programming using a manual and, by age 12, sold the code of a BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500. An awkward and introverted child, Musk was bullied throughout his childhood and was once hospitalized after a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs. He attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. Although his father insisted he attend college in Pretoria, Musk was determined to move to the United States. Aware it would be easier to enter the United States from Canada, he applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother. While awaiting Canadian documentation, Musk attended the University of Pretoria for five months. This allowed Musk to avoid mandatory service in the South African military. Arriving in Canada in June 1989, Musk failed to locate his great-uncle in Montreal and instead stayed at a youth hostel. He then traveled west to live with a second-cousin in Saskatchewan. He stayed there for a year, working odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill. In 1990, Musk entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania; he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in physics.In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley during the summer: at an energy storage start-up called Pinnacle Research Institute, which researched electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and at the Palo Alto-based start-up Rocket Science Games. Bruce Leak, the former lead engineer behind Apple's QuickTime who had hired Musk, noted: "He had boundless energy. Kids these days have no idea about hardware or how stuff works, but he had a PC hacker background and was not afraid to just go figure things out." In 1995, Musk was accepted to a Ph.D. program in energy physics/materials science at Stanford University in California. Musk attempted to get a job at Netscape but never received a response to his job inquiries. He dropped out of Stanford after two days, deciding instead to join the Internet boom and launch an internet startup.

Career

- Zip

In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds from a group of angel investors. They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto. The company developed and marketed an internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages. Before the company became successful, Musk could not afford an apartment, instead sleeping on the office couch and showering at the YMCA. They could only afford one computer and, according to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time." Their efforts materialized when the Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999. Musk received $22 million for his 7 percent share from the sale.

- X.com and PayPal

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with $10 million from the sale of Zip2. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money-transfer service called PayPal. The merged company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. Musk was ousted in October 2000 from his role as CEO (although he remained on the board) due to disagreements with other company executives over his desire to move PayPal's Unix-based infrastructure to a Microsoft one. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received $165 million. Before its sale, Musk, who was the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares. In 2017, Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount, explaining that it had sentimental value to him.

- SpaceX

In 2001, Musk conceived Mars Oasis, in which a miniature greenhouse on Mars would grow food crops and reawaken public interest in space exploration. In October 2001, Musk traveled with a group to Moscow to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and was even spat on by one of the Russian chief designers. The group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. Musk instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his early fortune, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., traded as SpaceX, in May 2002. In 2006, NASA announced that the company was one of two selected to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS), followed by a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services program contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011. On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle berthed with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the International Space Station. Starting in 2011, SpaceX received funding under NASA's Commercial Crew Development program to develop the Dragon 2 crew capsule. A contract to provide crew flights to the ISS was awarded in 2014. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back near the launch pad, the first time this had been achieved by an orbital rocket. Landings were later achieved on an autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean-based recovery platform. Starting in 2017 boosters were reflown on further missions. In February 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in operation. The inaugural mission carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to Musk as a dummy payload. SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites in 2015 to provide satellite Internet access, with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation is estimated by SpaceX to be about $10 billion, including nearly $900 million in Federal Communications Commission subsidies. In late 2017, SpaceX unveiled the design for its next-generation launch vehicle and spacecraft system, Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), that would support all SpaceX launch service provider capabilities with a single set of very large vehicles: Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit, interplanetary missions, and even intercontinental passenger transport on Earth, and totally replace the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles in the 2020s. In 2018, SpaceX announced a planned 2023 lunar circumnavigation mission, a private flight called #dearMoon project. In May 2020, SpaceX launched its first manned flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place a person into orbit and dock a crewed space-craft with the ISS.

- Tesla

Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla's board of directors as its chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following the financial crisis in 2008 and after a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, Eberhard was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008, positions he still holds today. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designates Musk as a fellow Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. As of 2019, Musk is the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally. Tesla first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. It was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in June 2012. Although it unveiled its third product, the Model X, in February 2012, the launch was delayed until September 2015. In an interview, Musk favored building a more affordable Tesla model, at around $30,000. Initial deliveries began in 2017, with the $35,000 base model becoming available in February 2019. As of March 2020, the Tesla Model 3 is the world's best-selling electric car, with more than 500,000 units delivered. Musk originally intended to name the Model 3 the Model E but was blocked by Ford which held the trademark, with Musk concluding that "Ford was killing SEX". In July 2016, the first phase of Gigafactory 1, a lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle subassembly factory, was officially opened near Reno, Nevada, by Tesla in partnership with Panasonic. As of May 2020, Gigafactory 1 produces 35 GWh/year of batteries. In July 2016, Tesla began developing Autopilot, their advanced driver-assistance system, in-house after Mobileye ended its partnership with Tesla, citing safety concerns following a fatal crash in which the driver of a Model S using Autopilot was killed. In January 2019, Musk traveled to China for the groundbreaking of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, the company's first large-scale plant outside the U.S. In November 2019, Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck. The Cybertruck is slated to start commercial production in late 2021.

- SEC lawsuit

In September 2018, Musk was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a tweet claiming funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private (at a price of $420 a share, an alleged reference to marijuana). The lawsuit claimed verbal discussions Musk held with foreign investors in July 2018 did not confirm key deal terms and thus characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Musk called the allegations unjustified and claimed he had never compromised his integrity. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Musk has stated in interviews he does not regret the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. On February 19, 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars in 2019. The SEC reacted to Musk's tweet by filing in court, initially asking the court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of a settlement agreement with such a tweet, which was disputed by Musk. This was eventually settled by a joint agreement between Musk and the SEC clarifying the previous agreement details. The agreement included a list of topics that Musk would need preclearance before tweeting about. In May 2020, a judge prevented a lawsuit from proceeding that claimed a May 1 tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement.

- SolarCity

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive co-founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk committed to building a SolarCity advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction on the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It was operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020.Tesla acquired SolarCity for over $2 billion in 2016 and converted it into its solar division; the announcement of the deal resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price. At the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues; however, Tesla shareholders were not informed. Consequently, multiple shareholder groups have filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, claiming that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. During a June 2019 court deposition, Musk acknowledged that the company reallocated every possible employee from the solar division to work on the Model 3, and, according to Musk, "as a result, solar suffered." This had not previously been disclosed to shareholders. Court documents unsealed in 2019 have confirmed that Musk was also aware of the company's liquidity issues. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant.

- Neuralink

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology start-up company to integrate the human brain with AI. The company is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow more direct interfacing with computing devices.At a live demonstration in August 2020, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull" which could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims. For example, MIT Technology Review described them as "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater".

- The Boring Company

In 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company (TBC) to construct tunnels. Discussions with regulatory bodies began in January 2017. In February 2017, the company began digging a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of Space X's offices in Los Angeles, since the construction requires no permits. A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2020. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system.As a merchandising and publicity stunt, The Boring Company sold 2,000 "flamethrowers" in 2018. The idea was allegedly inspired by the Mel Brooks-directed film Spaceballs (1987), a favorite of Musk's.

Other efforts

- Hyperloop

Musk first envisioned a high-speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes to move pressurized capsules on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors in around 2011 and then assigned a dozen engineers from Tesla and SpaceX to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs. On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled the concept which he dubbed the Hyperloop. The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area at an estimated total cost of $6 billion. The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs he has cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. In June 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track in a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company started a tunnel project with Hawthorne airport as its destination. In July 2017, Musk claimed that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., stopping in both Philadelphia and Baltimore.

- OpenAl

In December 2015, Musk announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit AI research company. OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity. By making AI available to everyone, OpenAI wants to "counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry." Musk has stated he wants to counteract the concentration of power. In 2018 Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot. In an interview with Joe Rogan in September 2018, Musk expressed his concerns about the dangers of developing AI indiscriminately. In January 2019, Mark Harris of The Guardian noted that the Musk foundation had "added a line to its website, stating its support for the "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity".

- Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a small rescue pod to assist the rescue of children stuck in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Named "Wild Boar" after the children's soccer team, its design was a five-foot (1.5 m)-long, 12-inch (300 mm)-wide sealed tube weighing about 90 pounds (41 kg) propelled manually by divers in the front and back with segmented compartments to place diver weights to adjust buoyancy, intended to solve the problem of safely extracting the children. Engineers at SpaceX and TBC built the mini-submarine out of a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. However, by this time, eight of the 12 children had already been rescued using full face masks and oxygen under anesthesia and Thai authorities declined to use the submarine. Vernon Unsworth, a recreational caver who had been exploring the cave for the previous six years and played a key advisory role in the rescue, criticized the submarine on CNN as amounting to nothing more than a public relations effort with no chance of success, and that Musk "had no conception of what the cave passage was like" and "can stick his submarine where it hurts". Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as "pedo guy". He subsequently deleted the tweets, along with an earlier tweet in which he told another critic of the device, "Stay tuned jackass." On July 16, Unsworth stated that he was considering legal action. Two days later, Musk issued an apology for his remarks. Then, on August 28, 2018, in response to criticism from a writer on Twitter, Musk tweeted, "You don't think it's strange he hasn't sued me?" The following day, a letter dated August 6 from L. Lin Wood, the rescuer's attorney, emerged, showing that he had been making preparations for a libel lawsuit. Around this time, James Howard-Higgins emailed Musk claiming to be a private investigator and with an offer to "dig deep" into Unsworth's past, which Musk accepted; Higgins was later revealed to be a convicted felon with multiple counts of fraud. On August 30, using details produced during the alleged investigation, Musk sent a BuzzFeed News reporter who had written about the controversy an email prefaced with "off the record" and claimed that Unsworth is a "single white guy from England who's been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years... until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time." On September 5, the reporter tweeted a screenshot of the email, saying that "Off the record is a two-party agreement," which he "did not agree to." In September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit in Los Angeles federal court. In his defense, Musk argued that in slang usage "'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up... synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor." The defamation case began in December 2019, with Unsworth seeking $190 million in damages. During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet. On December 6, the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable.

- 2018 Joe Rogan podcast appearance

On September 6, 2018, Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and discussed various topics for over two hours. One of the highest profile and controversial aspects of the program was Musk's sampling a single puff from a cigar consisting, Joe Rogan claimed, of tobacco laced with cannabis. To Rogan's inquiry on how often he smoked cannabis, Musk replied: "Almost never. I know a lot of people like weed and that's fine, but I don't find that is very good for productivity... not for me." The Washington Post observed that, "In the media's hands, it became a story about Musk's growing instability." Tesla stock dropped after the incident, which coincided with the confirmation of the departure of Tesla's Vice President of Worldwide Finance earlier that day. Fortune wondered if the cannabis use could have ramifications for SpaceX contracts with the United States Air Force, though a USAF spokesperson told The Verge that there was no investigation and that the Air Force was still processing the situation. In a 60 Minutes interview, Musk said of the incident: "I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot."

- Music ventures

On March 30, 2019, Musk released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud under the name "Emo G Records". The track was performed by Yung Jake, written by Yung Jake and Caroline Polachek, and produced by BloodPop. On January 30, 2020, Musk released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as "indistinguishable... from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on Soundcloud", TechCrunch said it was "not a bad representation of the genre".

- Philanthropy

Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which states its purpose is to provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas as well as other goals. Since 2002, the foundation has made over 350 contributions. Around half were to scientific research or education nonprofits. Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimball's Big Green. Musk is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, and, in 2012, signed The Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half of his fortune to charity. On February 8 2021, Musk and the X Prize Foundation announced the Gigaton Scale Carbon Removal prize, with a pocket of 100 million Dollar the largest incentive prize in history, to tackle climate change and award the team that develops the best carbon capture technology by 2025.

Personal life

Musk met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University. They married in 2000 and separated in 2008. Their first son died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at the age of 10 weeks. They share custody of five sons. In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, and in 2010, the couple married. In 2012, Musk announced a divorce from Riley. In 2013, Musk and Riley remarried. In December 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley; however, the action was withdrawn. A second divorce was finalized in 2016. Musk then dated Amber Heard, whom he had reportedly been pursuing since 2012, for several months in 2017. Musk was later accused of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to Johnny Depp. In May 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020. According to Musk and Grimes, his name was "X Æ A-12"; however, the name was deemed illegal under California law, because it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet, and was then changed to "X Æ A-Xii". This drew more confusion, as Æ is not a letter in the modern English alphabet. The child was eventually named "X AE A-XII", with "X" as a first name and "AE A-XII" as a middle name. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in the Los Angeles area of California where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded and where their headquarters are still located. As of December 2020, Musk resides in Texas.

In popular culture

Musk has had multiple cameos and appearances in films such as Iron Man 2 (2010), Why Him? (2016), and Men in Black: International (2019). Television series on which he has appeared include The Simpsons (2015), The Big Bang Theory (2015), South Park (2016), and Rick and Morty (2019). He has contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction (2015) and the Werner Herzog-directed Lo and Behold (2016).

Vinod Khosla

Vinod Khosla born 28 January 1955 is an Indian-born American businessman. Khosla is listed by Forbes magazine as a billionaire. Khosla made his early fortune as one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, where he was the founding CEO and chairman in the early 1980s.

Early life and education

Khosla's father was an officer in the Indian Army and was posted at New Delhi, India. Khosla read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. He attended Mount St Mary's School in Delhi. He went on to receive multiple degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

Career

In 1980, after post-graduating from Stanford University, Khosla worked for electronic design automation company Daisy Systems. In 1982, Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems (SUN is the acronym for the Stanford University Network), along with Stanford classmates Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and UC Berkeley computer science graduate student Bill Joy. Khosla served as the first chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems from 1982 to 1984, when he left the company to become a venture capitalist. In 1987, Khosla joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a general partner. At Kleiner, Khosla became a recognized venture capitalist, with several successful early stage investments. Khosla also played a key role with several of the tech industry's most spectacular failures, including Asera, Dynabook, BroadBand Office, Excite@Home, and many others. He also invested in an Indian microfinance company, SKS Microfinance, which lends small loans to poor women in rural India. Khosla is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of The Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India. Khosla was featured on Dateline NBC in May 2006, where he discussed the practicality of ethanol as a gasoline substitute. He is known to have invested heavily in ethanol companies, in hopes of widespread adoption. Khosla was a major proponent of the "Yes on 87" campaign to pass California's Proposition 87, The Clean Energy Initiative, which failed to pass in November 2006. In 2006, Khosla's wife Neeru co-founded the CK-12 Foundation, which aims to develop open source textbooks and lower the cost of education in America and the rest of the world. Khosla and his wife are also donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, in the amount of $600,000.

Khosla Ventures

Khosla formed his own venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures in 2004. The firm is based in Menlo Park, California, and manages approximately $1 billion of investor capital as well as investments funded by Khosla himself. In September 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups. Khosla Ventures III secured $750 million of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $250 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities.In May 2010, it was announced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to join Khosla Ventures to provide strategic advice regarding investments in technologies focused on the environment. Khosla Ventures also invested in HackerRank.

Other accomplishments and affiliations

In addition to his role in founding Sun Microsystems, Khosla has founded a number of other businesses and organizations. Khosla was also involved with the founding of Daisy Systems in 1981. He is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India. Khosla served as the Honorary Chair of the DonorsChoose San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board. In 2007, Khosla was an Award Recipient in the Northern California region for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In addition, Khosla is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. The Center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world. He is also one of the advisors for HackerRank,which has developed a platform for technology companies to evaluate candidates' programming skills.

Martin's Beach dispute

Khosla is engaged in a legal dispute surrounding public access to Martin's Beach, several miles south of Half Moon Bay, California, where he owns adjacent land. His attempts to close the beach by erecting a gate with armed guards at the road entrance and painting over the welcome sign that existed prior to his ownership of the property has been the subject of legal challenges, popular resentment, and extensive press coverage. Khosla won an early judgment in the California courts that determined he has a right to control the beach via the Mexican land rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. However, his ability to restrict access was also challenged in a suit brought by the Surfrider Foundation. Khosla ultimately lost that suit, and San Mateo Superior Court ordered that he could not restrict public access to the beach without first obtaining a permit from the California Coastal Commission. In October 2014 Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to re-open the beach to the public. Martin's Beach was previously a popular family beach and surf spot before Khosla purchased the property adjacent to the beach and blocked access. The previous owners of the land had allowed the public to park at the beach for a fee, but remained free to walk down. Khosla won a victory in May 2014, when Judge Gerald Buchwald issued a ruling which concluded that Martin's Beach LLC 1 and 2, the formal owners of Martin's Beach, can block public access to the beach, due to an exemption granted by the treaty which ended the Mexican-American war. The judge concluded that Khosla's property is not subject to aspects of the California Constitution because it was originally a rancho that predated the State. The Surfrider Foundation filed a second lawsuit against Khosla for violations of the California Coastal Act. Khosla lost the second suit and Judge Barbara Mallach issued her final order for Khosla to open the gate. Former Congressman Pete McCloskey said about the land closure, "To put a rope across the road and say, 'The hell with you' — I'd call it the arrogance of great wealth."Khosla told the state that he would sell a small slice of his property in order to enable members of the public to gain access to the beach again. The offer was for $30M, almost as much as Khosla spent on the property ($32M).

Additional legal disputes

The Martin's beach dispute is referenced in Martti Vallila's Bannana in the Legal Gulag; Exposing Trickery and Manipulation, Amazon, 2015 which also describes disputes between Khosla and Russian inventor Vladimir Poponin.

Sunil Duggal

Sunil Duggal is an Indian entrepreneur and business executive. He is the current Chief Executive Officer of Dabur, India's largest Ayurvedic medicine manufacturer.

Duggal holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He started his career after his MBA as a management trainee in Wimco, and worked in Bennett, Coleman and Co. and PepsiCo before joining Dabur in 1995. He took over as the CEO of the organization in June 2002.

Rajkumar N. Dhoot

Rajkumar Dhoot, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) representing the State of Maharashtra, India and Immediate Past-President of the Apex Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) is also the Promoter & Co-Owner of the diversified Videocon Group of Companies. He is from the Shiv Sena party. He is a well-known industrialist and was born on 11 September 1955 at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. His father, the late Shri Nandlal Madhavlal Dhoot, was an Indian Industrialist and the founder of Videocon. His brother, Venugopal Dhoot is the Chairman & Managing Director of Videocon Industries Limited.

Politics.

Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2002 and served the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, Consultative Committees for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry & the Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation. He has been a regular member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Finance & Special Invitee of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Communications & IT and for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. He was a special invitee to the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India). In April 2008, he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha for a second term & had been a Member of the Standing Committee on IT apart from being a Member of the Hindi Salahkar Samiti of the Ministry of Textiles. He has been consecutively re-elected for a third term for the Rajya Sabha this year (2014). At present, he is a Member of the Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare. Apart from keenly raising pertinent issues of his home State Maharashtra through Parliamentary Questions, No-Day-Yet Named Motions, amendments on the Motion of Thanks on Presidents’ Address & other means of Parliamentary modes, he has also introduced key Private Members Bills in the Rajya Sabha. To cite some of the subjects raised by Mr. Dhoot for the development of Maharashtra - for the prevention of suicides of farmers of Maharashtra and rest of the Country and for their welfare, for the welfare of pavement dwellers and slum dwellers of Mumbai and rest of the Country and many other issues of public importance. He regularly writes to Union Ministers and Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the redressal of problems of Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra and other issues of public importance & he has succeeded in his endeavors. Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot, being a 3rd term senior Parliamentarian actively campaigned with his party chief Shri Uddhav Thackeray and other Shiv Sena leaders in key cities of Maharashtra like Kolhapur, Nashik, Shirdi, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri amongst others before the General elections 2014 and also in the Maharashtra State Assembly Elections in 2014. Mr. Dhoot, in the winter session of the Parliament in November 2014 introduced three bills - The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2014 (amendment of Article 371 on special provision with respect to the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, The Illegal Immigrants and Missing Foreign Nationals Identification and Deportation Authority of India Bill, 2014, and The Homeless Pavement Dwellers (Welfare) Bill, 2014.

Chamber work and other interests

At the end of two successful terms as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Dhoot was elected as the President of Apex Industry body, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) by its Managing Committee on 21 February 2012. He held this position till 19 July 2013 and was instrumental in leveraging the Apex Chambers’ contribution to the development of the Industry to a great degree, with several proactive and engaging events.While Mr. Dhoot held office as the Senior Vice President of ASSOCHAM in 2011-12 and earlier was an active member of the Industry body, he also holds the unique distinction of being the first Parliamentarian to become the President of ASSOCHAM. ASSOCHAM saw itself reaching new heights when Mr. Dhoot ended his distinguished tenure with the Annual event of ASSOCHAM in July 2013, which had the Prime Minister of India gracing the occasion as the Chief Guest. The week-long series of events were attended by several Union Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Opposition, MPs, Industrialists, Bankers and Eminent Mediapersons. Prominent among those who attended were Shri Rajnath Singh, President of the Key Opposition Party, BJP; Shri Uddhav Thackerey, President of the Shiv Sena; Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and IT; Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Home Minister; Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha; Dr. Veerappa Moily, Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister; Shri Jaipal Reddy, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Minister; Shri Sachin Pilot, MoS (I/C) for Corporate Affairs amongst others. Mr. Dhoot continues to be closely associated with ASSOCHAM as its Past President and plays an active role in its affairs. Mr. Dhoot is the Former President of Marathwada Industries Association, now Chamber of Marathwada Industries & Agriculture (CMIA) which actively promotes industries in Marathwada region and is a Member of India-France Parliamentary Friendship Group. For the past few years, Mr. Dhoot has been a regular and active participant at the prestigious Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, also known as the Winter Davos, which is held in the last week of January and is a global congregation of Business leaders, political, academic and other leaders of the Global society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Philanthropy

Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot Graduated with Honors in Commerce from S.B. College, Aurangabad. Apart from Trade and Politics, he has been vigorously involved in Social work which includes promoting Education for the Girl child, running a leading multi-Super Specialty Charitable Hospital (providing advanced treatment to many life-threatening diseases and conditions from pediatric to geriatric patients as charity), undertaking Road construction and having drinking-water distributed to people in drought afflicted areas. In the early 1990s, people from rural areas in Maharashtra used to give minimum education to their daughters & had them married at an early age. Mr. Dhoot, taking into account the pitiable condition of the girls, decided to give education to the girls from the rural areas. As he knew “We owe to the society”, he established a Girls High school in Gangapur, Aurangabad in 1992, when, 100 students were given admission to the Secondary School. In 1995, a new big building was built, and, today, 1800 Students from First to Twelfth Standard are learning in the School. Mr. Dhoot gave his contribution in women empowerment by appointing only female teachers in the school. The school has well equipped computer & science labs, library, and, apart from the main subjects; tie & dye art, machine work, weaving and stitching are also taught to the Girls to make them self-reliant. Various Government Scholarships are given to the students, which are issued in the form of crossed cheques. Gangapur is a backward area & the people there now feel safe in sending their daughters to this school because of the reputation of the Dhoot family and due to the good social work done over decades in and around that area. Mr. Dhoot started this school with an intention to uplift the masses in that area and with a single-focused objective of teaching English to the girls in that area so that they can get become employable in the long run and upgrade their social status. Mr. Dhoot also established a Vittal Mandir in Gangapur area and has a small 3-bedded hospital adjoining the Mandir which takes care of the medical needs of people of Gangapur area. Mr. Dhoot runs a leading multi-Super Specialty Charitable Hospital - ‘Nandlal Dhoot Charitable Hospital’ at Aurangabad with an investment of over Rs. 100 crores, and from primary to all tertiary level health care facilities to help the people suffering from critical and life-threatening conditions. This hospital has fully developed Cardiac Centre and also provides radiation therapy using Cobalt-60 facilities for Cancer treatment. At the hospital, all poor patients are provided free food and accommodation during treatment. Mr. Dhoot regularly promotes free medical checkups and free medicine distribution camps to help the below poverty line population in and around Aurangabad. Mr. Dhoot is also helping the patients with poor eyesight or with developing blindness by regularly conducting free eye check-up and cataract surgery camps. Every year approximately 1200 patients are benefitted from such camps. During the infamous drought in Maharashtra in the Summer of 2013, Mr. Dhoot, in his personal capacity, arranged for Water-tankers to distribute clean drinking water for a period of 2 months amongst the poor and the drought afflicted people. He has also undertaken construction of roads in Gangapur & adjoining areas.

Anand Mahindra

Anand Mahindra (born 1 May 1955) is the chairman and managing director of Mahindra Group. His grandfather JC Mahindra co-founded the company in Mumbai, India. Founded as a steel trading company, the Group today has a presence in multiple sectors from agribusiness to aerospace.It is considered to be one of the most reputed Indian industrial houses with market leadership in many business verticals including utility vehicles, tractors (world's largest tractor company by volume), after market (India's largest multi-brand pre-owned car company), finance (largest rural NBFC in India), Holidays (India's largest vacation ownership company) and IT (top 5 IT service provider).

Hailed as 'The Federator' by Forbes (India) Magazine, Anand Mahindra started his career at Mahindra Group with Mahindra Ugine Steel Company Ltd. as Executive Assistant to the Finance Director and in 1989, was appointed President and Deputy managing director of that company. During his stint at MUSCO, he initiated the Mahindra Group's diversification into the new business areas of real estate development and hospitality management and in August 2012, took over as chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group from his uncle Keshub Mahindra.

He is included by Fortune Magazine among the 'World's 50 Greatest Leaders' and featured in the magazine's 2011 listing of Asia's 25 most powerful business people. Anand has also been noted by Forbes (India) as their 'Entrepreneur of the Year' for 2013.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Anand Mahindra joined Mahindra Ugine Steel Company Ltd (MUSCO), as Executive Assistant to the Finance Director. In 1989 he was appointed President and Deputy managing director of the company. In the summer of 1991, he was appointed Deputy managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a producer of off-road vehicles and agricultural tractors in India.

During his time at M&M Ltd., Anand initiated a comprehensive change program to make the company an efficient and aggressive competitor in the newly liberalised economic environment in India.[citation needed] In April 1997, he was appointed managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, and in January 2003 given the additional responsibility of vice-chairman. On 9 August 2012, he was appointed chairman and managing director. Anand is also a co-promoter of Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd, which was converted into a bank in 2003.

Under Anand Mahindra's leadership, the Mahindra group has grown beyond making steel and tractors. Today the Group makes SUVs—in India and South Korea (Ssangyong) with exports to Latin America, Africa, Europe and South East Asia. Mahindra Tractors is the world's largest tractor company by volume, selling tractors in India, China and the US. The group also makes electric cars, motorcycles, scooters, trucks, yachts, and aircraft. Mahindra Systech, makes auto components across five continents. Tech Mahindra is the fifth largest IT services and IT consulting company in India. Mahindra Retail (Mom & Me) sells products for expecting mothers and babies. Almost 200,000 people choose Club Mahindra Holidays as their preferred holiday package provider. Mahindra ShubhLabh Services is India's largest exporter of grapes and pomegranate. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited is the largest non-banking finance company in rural India. Mahindra Solar is making inroads in solar farms and Mahindra Lifespaces is a leader in sustainable urban development.

Today, the Mahindra Group is a US$16.5 billion organisation, and one of India's top 10 industrial houses.

Anand Mahindra has been tagged as the face of Indian capitalism by The Economist Forbes India Magazine has recognised him as their 'Entrepreneur of the Year' for the year 2013.

Anand Mahindra was recently appointed to the board of U.S.–India Business Council (USIBC). As a member of the board, Anand helps promote the policy advocacy priorities of USIBC and advice members and senior USIBC staff on a wide range of topics. Anand also serves as the Honorary Ambassador of Foreign Investment Promotion for the Republic of Korea, and is a member of the International Advisory Council of Singapore's Economic Development Board, which is the lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore's position as a global business center.

He is the co-founder of the Harvard Business School Association of India, an association dedicated to the promotion of professional management in India. An avid advocate of using 'design for human happiness', Anand is the chairman, Governing Council National Institute of Design and President, India Design Council.

He is the Founder Chairman of the Mumbai Festival, which was launched in January 2005. The event is the first comprehensive festival to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the city. He is also the Chairperson of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

He has also served as President of the Confederation of Indian Industry in 2003–04 and has been President of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). He also served on the Boards of the National Stock Exchange of India and the National Council of Applied Economic Research, and as a member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research.

Anand Mahindra is included in Fortune Magazine’s list of The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2014. Fortune magazine also named him as one of the top 25 most powerful business people in Asia for the year 2011. A regular at World Economic Forum's annual meetings, Anand Mahindra was the WEF co-chair in 2009. He has represented Indian industry at several global meets, including the APEC CEO Summit in 2009. He frequently shares his views and ideas on Indian economy and business through his writings in some of leading national and international business magazines. He has also contributed to books 'Reimagining India' published by Mckinsey and Company. A social media enthusiast, Anand has regularly been noted as one of the most influential business leaders on Twitter. His Twitter handle – @anandmahindra, has over a million followers.

Anand is a firm believer in power of education and has called it the "most privatisable of all social institutions". His father, Harish Mahindra, played a significant role in establishing the Mahindra United World College in Pune, Maharashtra, in 1997. MUWC is one of the 14 United World Colleges in the world. Anand is on the Board of Governors of the Mahindra United World College of India.

Anand is a staunch advocate of promoting girl child education and in 1996, founded Project Nanhi Kali, which provides sponsorship to underprivileged girls across India including, material support (e.g. school uniforms, school bag, shoes, socks, stationery etc.). He is also Trustee of the K.C. Mahindra Education Trust, which provides scholarships to students and supports the work of Project Nanhi Kali.

A student of the arts and culture, Anand believes that the study of humanities is essential in shaping leaders of the future. In November 2010, he donated $10million to support the Harvard Humanities Center in honour of his mother, Indira Mahindra. It is the largest gift for the study of humanities in Harvard's history. In recognition of this donation, the center was renamed the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.

Anand is co-founder of Naandi Danone, which is the largest safe drinking water provider to rural areas of India, catering to nearly 3 million customers. Anand is also Chairman of the Board of Naandi Foundation. Founded in 1998, the Naandi Foundation works in 4 broad sectors: safe drinking water, support for urban school children, work training for unemployed youth and agricultural marketing.

Anand has a keen interest in filmmaking, a subject he pursued as an undergraduate at Harvard. Today, he remains a keen photographer with a strong interest in film. He also enjoys listening to the blues and helped set up an annual Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai in 2011.

His enthusiasm about the arts has led the Mahindra Group to invest in promotion of arts and culture in India through the Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards and the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, a crafts mela (exhibition) and performing arts extravaganza at the historic and beautiful Kaiserbagh Baradari Palace in Lucknow. The Group also organises the Sundance Institute–Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award in Park City, Utah, USA through its media and entertainment company, Mumbai Mantra Media Ltd., Mumbai. This partnership also included the establishment of the Mumbai Mantra–Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab in India, which brought together eight Indian screenwriters from across the world to develop their work under the guidance of accomplished international screenwriters.

Anand is married to Anuradha Mahindra, who is the Editor and Publisher of the magazine – 'Verve’ and Publisher of 'The Indian Quarterly'. They have two daughters. Anand enjoys watching world cinema, reading, playing tennis and listening to the Blues.

Rahul Sharma

Mr. Rahul Sharma has been Vice President of Marketing and Internet Channel at MobileWave Group plc (Fieldbury PLC) since June 13, 2007. Mr. Sharma Co-Founded Micromax Informatics Limited and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. He served as Executive Director of Product Strategy and Channel Sales at Micromax Informatics Limited.

He is an experienced marketing architect with a background in product goods and technology marketing, having spearheaded successful campaigns for Proctor & Gamble,Microsoft Xbox and Shaw Cablesystems' on demand television services. He served as Vice President of On Demand Television Services at Shaw Communications Inc. since February 2004. He has over 13 years experience in sales and marketing. Mr. Sharma served closely with Shaw Communications corporate Sales and Marketing teams, and was responsible for oversaw the marketing and development of Shaw's On Demand products - Pay Per View, Video On Demand and Digital Pay Television. He joined Shaw with a strong background in marketing and brand/product management. Prior to Shaw, he held a number of management positions in Communications, Consumer Marketing and Brand Management. His extensive experience in building brands and launching new products along with his broad range of general business and marketing knowledge. He has been an Executive Director of Micromax Informatics Limited since April 1, 2007. Mr. Sharma holds Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Nagpur University. Mr. Rahul Sharma is said to marry Film actress Asin soon.

TATA Family Tree

Tata family is a family of Indian industrialists and philanthropists who founded iron and steel works, cotton mills and power plants that contributed to India’s industrial development. The Tatas are a Parsi family who originally came from state of Gujarat. The founder of the family’s fortunes was Jamsetji Tata.

Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata, known as the father of Indian industry

Dorabji Tata, elder son of Jamshetji, Indian industrialist and philanthropist

Ratanji Tata, younger son of Jamshetji, philanthropist and pioneer of poverty studies

Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, one of the founders of the Tata Group, married Suzanne Brière

J. R. D. Tata, Indian pioneer aviator and founder of Tata Airlines

Naval Tata, noted Tata group Industrualist, ILO member, recipient of Padma Bhushan

Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group

Simone Naval Tata, former chairperson of Trent

Noel Tata, chairperson of Trent.