Elon Musk Is First Recipient of “FiRe Entrepreneur of the Year” Award

The Future in Review (FiRe) global technology conference announced this week that Elon Musk, CEO & CTO, SpaceX; CEO & Product Architect, Tesla; and Chairman, SolarCity, has been named “FiRe Entrepreneur of the Year.” The award was presented live at the conference in San Diego, California, on May 21, 2009, by Mark Anderson, Chairman of FiRe and CEO of parent company Strategic News Service. This is the first year this honor has been awarded.

Anderson said of Musk, “He is the most impressive entrepreneur alive today. His ability to see which sectors will matter most, to get there with just the right timing, and to muster all the necessary skills for success in worlds as disparate as rocket design and electric cars is inspiring to all of us, and of benefit to the world. His successes justify our optimism.”

In giving the award, Anderson noted Musk’s early successes with PayPal and Zip2 Corp. prior to helping create the U.S.’ largest solar panel installer, the first viable electric car company in the modern era, and the first company to achieve the launch of a payload into Earth orbit with an entirely privately developed rocket.

On receiving the award, Musk said, “As someone who has attended the FiRe conference for many years and heard some of the most prominent people in the world speak there, I feel honored to receive this award.”

Future in Review, called “the best technology conference in the world” by The Economist, exposes world experts and participants to new ideas, producing an accurate portrait of the future. The conference pioneers in bringing technology solutions to current local and global problems.