Board of Directors
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, founder of three companies, joined The Planetary
Society’s Board of Directors in 2003. Currently CEO and Chief Technology
Officer of SpaceX, Musk is a strong supporter of space exploration. SpaceX
is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to reduce the cost and increase
the reliability of access to space.
Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded PayPal, the world's leading electronic
payment system, and served as the company's chairman and CEO. Musk was
the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay
in 2002.
Before PayPal, Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading
provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with
investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank,
and the Hearst Corporation. He served as Chairman, CEO, and Chief
Technology Officer and in March 1999, sold Zip2 to Compaq.
Musk's background extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries,
from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software
development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree
from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton, and
originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in high energy
density capacitor physics & materials science at Stanford |