Kimbal Musk

Kimbal Musk
Musk in 2013
Born	Kimbal James Musk
Birth date
Birth place	Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
Nationality	South Africa, Canada, United States<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref>
Occupation	Template:Hlist

Kimbal James Musk (born 20 September 1972) is a South African restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group, a collection of restaurants located in Colorado and Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref> Musk is also the co-founder and chairman of Square Roots, an urban farming company growing food in hydroponic, indoor, climate controlled shipping containers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Musk currently sits on the boards of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, both of which his brother Elon is the current CEO.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2020-09-02|}}Template:Self-published source</ref> He was on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> from 2013 to 2019.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref> He is the brother of Tosca Musk, son of Errol and Maye Musk, and a major shareholder in Tesla.<ref>Musk profile, nasdaq.com; accessed April 7, 2016.</ref>

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

Musk grew up with his brother Elon, sister Tosca, and many cousins. His mother, Maye Musk (Template:Nee), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa.<ref name="Biog">Template:Triangulation, discussion of his family starts around the 15th minute</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Usborne-2018">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NewYorker2009">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Smith">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="QUEENSALUMS">Template:Citation core{{#if:December 23, 2012|}}</ref>

Business career

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.<ref name="wsj"/>

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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:December 23, 2012|}}</ref>

While Elon stayed in California, Kimbal moved to New York<ref name="wsj">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:December 23, 2012|}}</ref> In addition to its flagship restaurant in Boulder, The Kitchen has locations in downtown Denver<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref> and Chicago.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:25 February 2014|}}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After seven years of supporting the Growe Foundation to plant school gardens in the Boulder community,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in 2011 Musk and Matheson established Big Green<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-04-10|}}</ref> (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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Each of The Kitchen restaurants donates a percentage of sales to help plant Learning Gardens in its local community.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:April 5, 2016|}}</ref> In 2012, Big Green built 26 gardens in Colorado, 16 in Chicago, and 12 more around the USA.<ref name="dp">Template:Cite news</ref>

In December 2012, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel handed Musk's nonprofit $1 million to install 80 Learning Gardens in Chicago city schools.<ref name=dp/> 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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:April 7, 2015|}}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:December 28, 2015|}}</ref> 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<ref name="auto"/> and announced its seventh city, Detroit, to build outdoor Learning Garden classrooms in 100 schools across the Motor City.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2019, Big Green is in seven American cities with nearly 600 schools across its network impacting over 300,000 students every day.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> CNN,<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref> The Wall Street Journal,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fast Company,<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref> WIRED,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Chicago Sun Times,<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref> CBS News,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Business Insider,<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref> Entrepreneur Magazine,<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref> Musk was named a Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the World Economic Forum.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2019-05-09|}}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:8 April 2020|}}</ref>

On 9 February 2021,<ref>[1] Yahoo Finance, Retrieved March 09, 2021. Template:Dead link</ref> Musk sold 30,000 shares of Tesla, Inc. worth $25,604,000.<ref>Pound, Jesse, (2021) [2] CNBC. Retrieved 9 March 2021.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:|}}</ref>

Personal life

Musk married Jen Lewin, with whom he established The Kitchen. The couple had two children together. They later divorced. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.<ref name=bizjournals>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 2018, he married Christiana Wyly, an environmental activist and the daughter of ex-billionaire Sam Wyly.<ref name="CultureMap">Template:Cite news</ref>

Musk also has a daughter from another relationship.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:|}}</ref>

Controversy

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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2021-11-15|}}</ref> Later, the restaurants reopened but reportedly did not restore the fund to those who contributed.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2021-11-15|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2021-11-15|}}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2021-11-15|}}</ref>