Who is Elon’s younger brother Kimbal Musk, the Tesla director in a cowboy hat?
Tesla shareholders are set to decide on Elon Musk's disputed $56 billion pay package, despite a prior court voiding. Amid votes for board members, including Musk's brother Kimbal, known for his cowboy hat style and diverse ventures from SpaceX to culinary arts, his journey from South Africa to tech and food industries reveals a rich entrepreneurial spirit. As a key figure in Tesla's governance, Kimbal Musk's multifaceted career continues to influence both business and community initiatives.
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Reuters
Tesla shareholders will vote on Thursday on whether to ratify CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package which was voided by a Delaware judge in January. Musk said late on Wednesday that shareholders were voting by wide margins to approve the pay package.
Also on the agenda is the re-election of directors, including Musk's younger brother, Kimbal. Usually seen posing in a cowboy hat, Kimbal's biography on the Tesla website says he is an entrepreneur, activist and chef.
HERE ARE A FEW FACTS ABOUT HIM:
Born a year after Elon Musk, Kimbal grew up in South Africa with his brother before moving to Canada to pursue a business degree at Queen's University. He turns 52 this year. His net worth was estimated at $700 million in 2021, according to Forbes. He owns nearly 2 million shares of Tesla, worth more than $350 million, according to the company's proxy filing and the company's share price on Wednesday.
Kimbal Musk was a director of SpaceX from 2002, when it was founded, to January 2022, according to a Tesla proxy filing. He served on Chipotle Mexican Grill's board between 2013 and 2019. One of the early business collaborations between the brothers was internet enterprise software firm Zip2 Corp, which they co-founded in 1995. It was acquired by Compaq for a reported $307 million, according to the New York Times, and merged into Yahoo Maps in 1999. Kimbal had also invested in his brother's online financial services firm X.com, which merged with PayPal.
A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, he cofounded in 2004 the Kitchen Restaurant Group which has restaurants across the United States. He is also the author of "The Kitchen Cookbook: Cooking for Your Community."
In 2010, Kimbal became the executive director of Big Green, a nonprofit organization that creates learning gardens in schools across the U.S. In 2022, he launched a drone light shows company, Nova Sky Stories, with 9,000 light drones.
He cofounded an indoor farming platform, Square Roots, in 2016. In 2010 he broke his neck while skiing and was hospitalized for months. He called it a "near death experience," according to media reports.
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SOURCE: REUTERS