Elon Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth and in space. His automaker, Tesla Motors, which was founded in 2003, is bringing fully-electric vehicles to the mass market. He settled with the SEC in September 2018 for making alleged “false statements” about a plan to take Tesla private, and had to step down as chairman. SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, is now valued at more than $20 billion. He grew up in South Africa, then immigrated to Canada at age 17.
He landed in the US as a transfer student at the University of Pennsylvania.