Kimbal Musk facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kimbal Musk
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Musk in 2013
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Kimbal James Musk
20 September 1972 Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
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| Nationality | South Africa, Canada, United States |
| Alma mater | Queen's University (1995) |
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| Children | 3 |
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Kimbal James Musk (born 20 September 1972) is a businessman and chef. He was born in South Africa and is now also a citizen of Canada and the United States. He helps run The Kitchen Restaurant Group, which has restaurants in Colorado, Chicago, and Austin.
Kimbal is also the co-founder and chairman of Big Green. This is a nonprofit group that builds outdoor classrooms called Learning Gardens at schools across the United States. He also co-founded Square Roots, a company that grows food in special indoor farms using shipping containers. Kimbal Musk is on the boards of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX. His brother, Elon Musk, is the CEO of both companies.
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Kimbal Musk's Early Life
Kimbal Musk grew up with his older brother, Elon Musk, and younger sister, Tosca Musk. Their mother, Maye Musk, was a model and dietitian. Their father, Errol Musk, was an engineer and property developer.
After finishing high school in Pretoria, South Africa, Kimbal moved to Canada. He joined his brother in Kingston, Ontario, and studied business at Queen's University. He graduated from Queen's University in 1995.
Starting Businesses
Kimbal Musk's first business was a painting company in 1994. In the same year, he and his brother Elon started their second company, Zip2. Zip2 was an online guide for cities. It provided content for newspapers like The New York Times. In 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq for $307 million.
After selling Zip2, Kimbal invested in new technology companies. He was an early investor in his brother's company, X.com. This company offered online financial services. X.com later joined with PayPal, which was bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Cooking and Restaurants
After his early business success, Kimbal Musk moved to New York. He studied cooking at the French Culinary Institute. In 2004, he opened The Kitchen, a community bistro in Boulder, Colorado. He started this restaurant with Jen Lewin and Hugo Matheson. The Kitchen now has locations in downtown Denver and Chicago.
From 2006 to 2011, Musk was the CEO of OneRiot, an advertising company. In 2011, Walmart-Labs bought OneRiot. Also in 2011, he opened Next Door American Eatery in Boulder. This is a fast-casual restaurant that has grown to ten locations by 2019.
Helping Communities with Big Green
For several years, Kimbal Musk supported the Growe Foundation, which planted school gardens. In 2011, he and Hugo Matheson started Big Green. This is a nonprofit group that helps kids learn about healthy food. They do this by building Learning Garden classrooms at schools.
These gardens teach children about food, healthy eating, and the environment. They use lesson plans that connect to school subjects like math and science. Each of The Kitchen restaurants donates money to help build these gardens in their local areas.
In 2012, Big Green built 26 gardens in Colorado and 16 in Chicago. By the end of 2015, Big Green had built 260 Learning Gardens. These were in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and Memphis. In 2018, Big Green expanded to Detroit, planning to build 100 gardens there. By 2019, Big Green had nearly 600 gardens in seven American cities. These gardens help over 300,000 students every day. Kimbal Musk and Big Green also created Plant a Seed Day, which is an international holiday.
Square Roots and Other Work
In 2016, Musk co-founded Square Roots. This company focuses on urban farming. They grow organic food inside shipping containers. Square Roots has partnered with Gordon Food Services to grow its reach.
Kimbal Musk has been featured in many well-known publications. These include The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In 2018, the World Economic Forum named him a Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
In 2020, Musk's Next Door's Family Fund program faced some questions. This fund was set up to help employees during emergencies. Contributions to the fund came from the employees themselves. In 2022, it was reported that the SEC (a government agency) was looking into some of Musk's stock sales. This was after he sold Tesla shares before his brother, Elon Musk, asked on Twitter if he should sell some of his own shares.
Kimbal Musk's Family Life
Kimbal Musk married Jen Lewin, and they had two children. They later divorced. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. In April 2018, he married Christiana Wyly. She is an environmental activist. Kimbal also has another daughter from a different relationship.
Images for kids
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A robot for kids.
