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Kimbal Musk

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Kimbal Musk
Musk in 2013
Born
Kimbal James Musk

(1972-09-20) 20 September 1972 (age 52)
Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
NationalitySouth Africa, Canada, United States[1]
Alma materQueen's University (1995)[2]
Occupations
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2001; div. 2010)​
  • Christiana Wyly
    ​
    (m. 2018)​
Children3
Parents
Relatives

Kimbal James Musk (born 20 September 1972[3]) is a South African businessman and restaurateur. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group, a collection of restaurants in Colorado and Chicago.[4] He is the co-founder and chairman of Big Green, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has built hundreds of outdoor classrooms called Learning Gardens in schoolyards across the United States.[5][6][7] Musk is also the co-founder and chairman of Square Roots, an urban farming company growing food in hydroponic, indoor, climate controlled shipping containers.[8][9][10] Musk currently sits on the boards of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX; his brother Elon is the current CEO of both companies.[11] He was on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill[12] from 2013 to 2019.[13] He is the brother of Elon Musk, Tosca Musk, son of Errol and Maye Musk, and a major shareholder in Tesla.[14]

In 1995 he co-founded, with his brother, Elon Musk, the software company Zip2, which was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999.

Early life

[edit]

Musk grew up with his brother Elon, sister Tosca, and many cousins. His mother, Maye Musk (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa.[15][16][17] His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve.[18][19][20][21] After finishing high school in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk left to meet his brother in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and enrolled at Queen's University to pursue a degree in business. While in school, Musk first worked at Scotiabank. He graduated with his degree from Queen's University in 1995.[2]

Business career

[edit]

Musk's first venture was a residential painting business with College Pro Painters in 1994, the same year he and his elder brother, Elon, started their second company, Zip2. Zip2 was an online city guide that provided content for the new online versions of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune newspapers. The company was sold in 1999 to Compaq for $307 million.[22]

After selling Zip2, Musk invested in several young software and technology companies. Musk was an early investor in his brother's venture X.com, an online financial services and email payments company. X.com merged with PayPal, which in October 2002 was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock.[23]

While Elon stayed in California, Kimbal moved to New York[22] and enrolled into the French Culinary Institute in New York City. In April 2004, Musk opened The Kitchen, a community bistro in Boulder, Colorado with Jen Lewin and Hugo Matheson.[24] In addition to its flagship restaurant in Boulder, The Kitchen has locations in downtown Denver[25][26] and Chicago.[27]

From 2006 to 2011, Musk served as the CEO of OneRiot, an advertising network. In September 2011, Walmart-Labs acquired OneRiot for an undisclosed purchase price.[28]

In 2011, Next Door American Eatery opened in downtown Boulder as a fast casual American eatery. Next Door American Eatery is a growing restaurant concept with ten locations as of 2019.[29][30][31]

After seven years of supporting the Growe Foundation to plant school gardens in the Boulder community,[32] in 2011 Musk and Matheson established Big Green[33] (originally named The Kitchen Community), a 501c3 nonprofit to help connect kids to real food by creating dynamic Learning Garden classrooms in schools across America. Learning Gardens teach children an understanding of food, healthy eating, lifestyle choices and environment through lesson plans and activities that tie into existing school curriculum, such as math, science, and literacy.[34]

Each of The Kitchen restaurants donates a percentage of sales to help plant Learning Gardens in its local community.[35] In 2012, Big Green built 26 gardens in Colorado, 16 in Chicago, and 12 more around the USA.[36]

In December 2012, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel handed Musk's nonprofit $1 million to install 80 Learning Gardens in Chicago city schools.[36] On 2 February 2015, The Kitchen Community celebrated its 200th Learning Garden build at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, a high school in Los Angeles Unified School District which also marked the District's first SEEDS Project.[37]

By the end of 2015, four years after its founding, The Kitchen Community had built 260 Learning Gardens across Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Memphis.[38] In 2016, Musk co-founded Square Roots, an urban farming company that grows organic food in shipping containers. The company formed a partnership with Gordon Food Services (GFS) to expand outside of NYC. In January 2018, The Kitchen Community (TKC), expanded into a national nonprofit called Big Green[7] and announced its seventh city, Detroit, to build outdoor Learning Garden classrooms in 100 schools across the Motor City.[39] As of 2019, Big Green is in seven American cities with nearly 600 schools across its network impacting over 300,000 students every day.[40] Musk and Big Green have established Plant a Seed Day, an international holiday.

Musk has been profiled in major publications such as The New York Times,[41] CNN,[42] The Wall Street Journal,[43] Fast Company,[44] WIRED,[45] Chicago Sun Times,[46] CBS News,[47] Business Insider,[48] Entrepreneur Magazine,[49] Musk was named a Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the World Economic Forum.[50][51]

Musk faced scrutiny in 2020 after changing his Next Door's Family Fund program in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The fund was originally set up to help employees during an emergency situation. Contributions came from employees of Next Door.[52]

On 9 February 2021,[53] Musk sold 30,000 shares of Tesla, Inc. worth $25,604,000.[54] On 24 February 2022, it was reported that the SEC was investigating Musk for possible insider trading violations after he sold 88,500 shares of Tesla valued at $108,000,000 one day before his brother put out a poll on Twitter asking if he should sell 10% of his Tesla shares. As a result of that poll, Elon Musk sold billions of dollars of Tesla shares and the stock price sank.[55]

Personal life

[edit]

Musk married Jen Lewin, with whom he established The Kitchen. The couple had two children together. They later divorced. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.[56] In April 2018, he married Christiana Wyly, an environmental activist and the daughter of ex-billionaire Sam Wyly.[57]

Musk also has a daughter from another relationship.[58]

Controversy

[edit]

Kimbal Musk's restaurant group collected funds (called the Family Fund) from employees to cover hardships and personal emergencies, but during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the restaurants closed "permanently" and the employees were locked out of the funds they had contributed to.[59] Later, the restaurants reopened but reportedly did not restore the fund to those who contributed.[60][61] Musk later disputed reports of the controversy, citing lack of facts by journalists. The Kitchen Restaurant Group reports the fund now receives contributions from owners and customers; as tips for take-out orders are rerouted to the fund and then matched by the owners. The group also reports that grants have been awarded and both furloughed and laid-off workers will be considered in future.[62]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ @Mayemusk (4 July 2020). "Happy 4th of July! From four happy Americans" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b "Success Stories: Queen's Business Consulting: A Tale of Two Consultants". Queen's University School of Business. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  3. ^ @kimbal (20 September 2024). "Feeling pure joy today on my 52nd birthday. Grateful for my family, my wife, my life" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 24 September 2024 – via Twitter.
  4. ^ "Kimbal Reeve Musk to open restaurant on Mass Ave". Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  5. ^ "Why every child deserves a learning garden". MNN - Mother Nature Network. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  6. ^ Padden, Caroline (29 October 2012). "Learning Gardens: Connecting Kids to Real Food". 5280 Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Kimbal Musk — Elon's brother — is leading a $25 million mission to fix food in schools across the US". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  8. ^ Lauren, Jennifer (27 January 2017). "Kimbal Musk launches a revolutionary shipping container farm initiative in Brooklyn". Inhabitat Magazine.
  9. ^ Garfield, Leanna (23 August 2016). "Elon Musk's brother is building vertical farms in shipping containers". Business Insider.
  10. ^ Scott, Bartie (23 August 2016). "Elon Musk's Brother to Launch an Urban Farming Accelerator in Brooklyn". Inc Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Kimbal Musk | Board of Directors | Tesla, Inc". ir.tesla.com. Retrieved 2 September 2020.[self-published source]
  12. ^ "Chipotle Mexican Grill names Kimbal Musk to board". Denver Post. 29 August 2013.
  13. ^ Fitzgerald, Maggie (14 March 2019). "Kimbal Musk is stepping down from Chipotle's board". CNBC. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  14. ^ Musk profile, nasdaq.com; accessed April 7, 2016.
  15. ^ His biography author Ashlee Vance interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT.tv network, discussion of his family starts around the 15th minute
  16. ^ Vargas, Chanel (6 March 2018). "11 Things to Know About Stunning 69-Year-Old Model Maye Musk". Town & Country. Archived from the original on 7 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  17. ^ Usborne, Simon (21 February 2018). "Meet the Musks: who's who in Elon's extended family?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  18. ^ Isaacson, Walter (12 September 2023). Elon Musk. Simon & Schuster. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-982181-28-4.
  19. ^ Hull, Dana; May, Patrick. "Exploring the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  20. ^ Friend, Tad (17 August 2009). "Plugged In". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022.
  21. ^ Smith, Adam (28 June 2021). "50 years of Elon Musk's huge wealth, from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2021. teenage
  22. ^ a b Sara Lin (22 May 2009). "Dot-Com Chef Meets Burning Man". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  23. ^ Margaret Kane (8 July 2002). "eBay picks up PayPal for $1.5 billion". CNET. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  24. ^ Hugo Matheson & Kimbal Musk. "Marinated Pork Chops with Herb Salsa". Food & Wine. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  25. ^ Brown, Douglas J. (28 August 2013). "Kimbal Musk, owner of The Kitchen restaurants in Colorado, talks food". The Denver Post. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  26. ^ "The Denver Post". The Denver Post. 10 April 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  27. ^ "Brother of Tesla founder to open Chicago restaurant". Crain's Chicago Business. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  28. ^ Rao, Leena (13 September 2011). "Walmart Acquires Mobile And Social Ad Targeting Startup OneRiot". TechCrunch.
  29. ^ "Next Door Eatery". www.nextdooreatery.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  30. ^ Tobias, Ruth. "Now Open: The Kitchen Next Door". Zagat.com. Zagat. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  31. ^ Zeppelin, Andra (24 July 2014). "The Kitchen Next Door now open at Union Station". Eater. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  32. ^ Greenhalgh, Tracy (17 November 2011). "The Kitchen Community: Creating Gardens for Kids". Boulder's Best. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  33. ^ "Kimbal Musk's garden dream is growing". MNN - Mother Nature Network. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  34. ^ Stoler, Felicia D. Stoler (14 December 2011). "Learning Gardens Sprouting Up Across America". FOX News.
  35. ^ "Community Through Food". The Kitchen Community. 20 June 2014. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  36. ^ a b Brown, Douglas (24 April 2013). "Digest: Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares to Denver, Strings holds auction". The Denver Post.
  37. ^ "EVENT: 200th Learning Garden Ribbon Cutting Ceremony". thekitchencommunity.org. Archived from the original on 11 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  38. ^ "The Kitchen Community's Learning Gardens Take Root". 5280.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  39. ^ "National nonprofit aims to put gardens in 100 Detroit schools". Crain's Detroit Business. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  40. ^ Kimbal Musk is on a mission to revolutionize the American diet, retrieved 10 April 2019
  41. ^ Severson, Kim (16 October 2017). "Kimbal Musk Wants to Feed America, Silicon Valley-Style". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  42. ^ Alesci, Cristina (3 September 2015). "This Musk is leading a food revolution". CNNMoney. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  43. ^ Cheshes, Jay (25 May 2017). "Kimbal Musk Says Food is the New Internet". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  44. ^ Peters, Adele (2 November 2015). "Meet The (Other) Musk Brother, Who Wants To Change The World Of Food". Fast Company. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  45. ^ Levy, Steven (5 May 2015). "The Musk Who Wants to Change the Way We Eat". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  46. ^ "Billionaire Kimbal Musk on CPS learning gardens: 'Real food is a human right'". Chicago Sun-Times. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  47. ^ "Kimbal Musk is on a mission to revolutionize the American diet", CBS News, retrieved 9 May 2019
  48. ^ Ciolli, Jacqui Frank, Kara Chin, Joe. "Kimbal Musk tells us how traumatic experiences helped shape his food empire". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 May 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  49. ^ Schoenfeld, Bruce (21 September 2011). "The Farm-to-Table Founding Fathers". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  50. ^ "Awardees". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  51. ^ "Our food system is bust. This innovative three-step plan could fix it". World Economic Forum. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  52. ^ Peck, Emily (7 April 2020). "Elon Musk's Billionaire Brother Told His Workers They Were Family. Until COVID-19 Hit". HuffPost. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  53. ^ [1] Yahoo Finance, Retrieved March 09, 2021. [dead link]
  54. ^ Pound, Jesse, (2021) [2] CNBC. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  55. ^ Michaels, Dave (24 February 2022). "SEC Probes Trading by Elon Musk and Brother in Wake of Tesla CEO's Sales". The Wall Street Journal.
  56. ^ "Husted: Kimbal Musk, restaurateur and brother of rocketman Elon Musk (Slideshow)". Bizjournals. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  57. ^ Gubbins, Teresa (9 April 2018). "Kimbal Musk and Wyly heiress celebrate wedding at Dallas restaurant". CultureMap. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  58. ^ "A Tale of Two Kitchens". 17 September 2018.
  59. ^ "Elon Musk's Billionaire Brother Told His Workers They Were Family. Until COVID-19 Hit". HuffPost. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  60. ^ Orr, Susan (4 June 2021). "Musk restaurant group reverses course, plans to reopen Next Door Eatery in SoBro". Indianapolis Business Journal. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  61. ^ "Employees at Crosstown restaurant owned by Kimbal Musk wonder where emergency fund is". WREG.com. 8 April 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  62. ^ "Kimbal Musk defends employee support fund, pushes back on HuffPo story". Boulder Daily Camera. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
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