Ok so we have no shortage of South Africans doing us proud overseas, but we thought it a good idea to make mention of six people who not only serve as sterling ambassadors for the rainbow nation, but also change the world through their actions and ideas.
Elon Musk
Born in SA in 1971, Musk matriculated in Pretoria before moving to the US where he co-founded Paypal. You’d think that would be enough, but Elon went on to become the chief technical officer and CEO of Tesla Motors, one of the world’s most inventive and cutting edge companies developing everything from open source supercars to new ways of taking households off the grid.
Roelof Botha
Another Pretoria boy, Botha is a big-wig venture capitalist in the US and sits on the board of seven top US companies including Evernote, Tumblr and Weebly. He also used to be vice-pressie of Pypal.
Lyndon Rive
Rive left SA soon after starting his first business at the ripe age of 17 and now sits on the board of SolarCity – the company at the forefront of US clean energy – with his buddy Elon Musk.
Vinny Lingham
Vinny hails from East London and is the CEO and co-founder of Gyft, which recently became part of the First Data group in a multi-million dollar takeover.
Liam Pedersen
Cape Town-born Pedersen is a thinking man. He’s a robotics researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Centre, where they build the robotics for the research vehicles on mars.
Oh and he’s also head of Nissan’s autonomous vehicle research team. No biggie.
Pieter de Villiers
Pieter is based in Silicon Valley, where he co-founded Clickatell and also serves as its CEO.
Don’t hate us cos you aint us!
- The South African
Elon Musk
Born in SA in 1971, Musk matriculated in Pretoria before moving to the US where he co-founded Paypal. You’d think that would be enough, but Elon went on to become the chief technical officer and CEO of Tesla Motors, one of the world’s most inventive and cutting edge companies developing everything from open source supercars to new ways of taking households off the grid.
Roelof Botha
Another Pretoria boy, Botha is a big-wig venture capitalist in the US and sits on the board of seven top US companies including Evernote, Tumblr and Weebly. He also used to be vice-pressie of Pypal.
Lyndon Rive
Rive left SA soon after starting his first business at the ripe age of 17 and now sits on the board of SolarCity – the company at the forefront of US clean energy – with his buddy Elon Musk.
Vinny Lingham
Vinny hails from East London and is the CEO and co-founder of Gyft, which recently became part of the First Data group in a multi-million dollar takeover.
Liam Pedersen
Cape Town-born Pedersen is a thinking man. He’s a robotics researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Centre, where they build the robotics for the research vehicles on mars.
Oh and he’s also head of Nissan’s autonomous vehicle research team. No biggie.
Pieter de Villiers
Pieter is based in Silicon Valley, where he co-founded Clickatell and also serves as its CEO.
Don’t hate us cos you aint us!
- The South African
