10 Amazing Businessmen you didn't know where South African

byDcCartell

245 followers

Updated 8 years ago

Often times we think that the most successful people in the world come from 1st world countries like America and Europe. Often times it is true, there have been marvelous inventions, creations and ideas that have been manifested from these great countries.

But it is humbling to know that every now and then there are some magnificent men and women who have denied their odds of being born in a 3rd world country, they have risen out of the ashes and striven towards a destiny and world they wish to live in. These great men and women have created some magnificent inventions, defied the odds and thoughts of reality and created miracles in science and technology.

Being South African I am proud to present 10 marvelous men who have defied all odds and who have changed the way we work today. These great men have created advances in technology that help make our lives easier today, built billion dollar businesses internationally, created lines of luxury and for some of us working on the web it would not be possible if it was not for these inspiring men.

10.)Vinny Lingham

If you are a budding online enthusiast and ever tried to create your own website online with the free yola.com website then you have this man to thank for that. Not only did he create Yola but he is also responsible for you being able to send your nephews last minute birthday present as a gift card through the gyft.com website.

Vinny was born in February 1979 in a quite little town called East london, South Africa,. He now resides in San Francisco where he sits on the boards of ChessCube, Skyrove and Personera.

Vinny's next claim to fame is his business venture SiliconCap.com, an NGO company aimed at turning Cape Town into a technology hub and creating more enthusiastic digital entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps. Vinny even featured on the South African version of Dragon Den in 2014.

9.)Lyndon Rive

If you have had the pleasure of being saved from blackouts during your latest episode of Vampire Diaries due to your SolarCity home kit then you can thank Lyndon rive and his brother Peter.

Lyndon created SolarCity in 2006 and has quickly taken the company to being the #1 ranked residential solar provider in America. In 2013 Rive was awarded Entrepreneur of the year in the northern California region by EY.com for his outstanding work.

Rive was born in Pretoria and started his first company Everdream that was later sold to Dell in 2007. He now keeps himself busy with advancing Solar technology and Underwater Hockey.

8.) Paul Maritz

There is always a man behind the MAN and for Bill Gates that man was Paul Maritz. Maritz was often said to be the third ranking executive behind Gates and Billmar and was essentially responsible for all of Microsofts desktop and server software and the development of Windows 95 and Internet Explorer.

In 2010 Maritz was named by CRN Magazine as the number one most influential Executive and in 2011 the Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for global commerce.

Maritz was born in Zimbabwe in 1955 but was raised in South Africaa before moving to Scotland where he was a researcher at the university of Scotland.

7.) Roelof Botha

If you looking for one really bright fella then look no further then Roelof Botha. Botha has received awards such as the youngest actuary in South African History and also received the Henry Ford Scholar Award at Stanford GSB.

Botha was CFO of Paypal from 2001 to 2003 before E-bay bought it in October 2003. He left paypal In 2003 and joined Sequoia Capital where he now sits on the board of Jawbone, Eventbrite, Evernote, Maholo, Natera, Nimbula, Square, Tokbox, Tumblr, Weebly, Unity, Whisper and Zoom. If that isn't enough he even has time to work with 10gen, AssureRX, FutureAdvisor and Instagram.

He was born in Pretoria in 1973 before he moved to the United States in 1998 to further his studies at Stanford University.

6.)Ralph Simon

If you have that sweet sound of your ringtone or enjoy countless hours playing on your apps and games on your mobile device then Ralph Simon is smiling. Ralph Simon has been acknowledged as one of the founders of the modern mobile entertainment and content industry.

Simon is now the founder and Ceo of Mobilium Global and has been appointed as the global Ambassador for the CTIA - The wireless Association. Simon began his career co-founding the Zomba group of music companies with Clive Cadler and then in the 90's moved to America and became executive vice president of Capitol Records and Blue Note Records in Hollywood.

Ralph Simon was born in Johannebsurg and attended school at King Edwards.

5.)Sol Kerzner

If you are a golf fanatic then you may have heard of this Billionaire. Sol Kerzner is the developer of the internationally acclaimed Sun City Resort in South Africa where the annual Nedbank Million Dollar Golf Championship is held.

Not only does he own Sun International group but also many other famous resorts around the globe. These include "the one&only resorts", Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas and many other resorts in the Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Dubai and the U.S.

Kerzner was born in August 1935 in Johannesburg South Africa, where he studied as an accountant and then later acquired his first hotel in Durban called the Astra Hotel. Sol is now developing a new Atlantis hotel in Sanya, Hainan Island in China which will be a 62 hectre resort with 1300 rooms and a water park.

4.)Anton Rupert

Those admiring the finer things in life and living a life of luxury may have heard of the internationally acclaimed Richemont or Rembrandt group. Yes that is right, Anton Rupert is the man to thank for that.

Anton started the Rembrandt group in the 1940's as a cigarette brand and then in 1988 he founded the Richemont group which acquired shares in Rothmans. Richemont is the owner of luxury brands such as Cartier, Alfred Dunhill, MontBlanc and Vacheron Constantin(Swiss Watches).

Anton was born in 1916 in Groof Reniet, Eastern Cape in South Africa and died in January 2006. His oldest son, Johan Rupert, is now CEO of the Richemont group and chairman of Remgro. Anton Rupert first attended medical school but dropped out due to financial reasons but later earned a chemistry degree at the university of pretoria before opening his first business, a Dry Cleaning Business.

3.) Clive Calder

This fine gentleman co-founded the Zomba group with our no.6 Ralph Simon in 1976. The Zomba group and its subsidiary Jive records managed great musical artist such as NYSNC, The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. Clive has been acknowledged as the second highest music billionaire in Britian in the music industry behind Warner groups chairman Edgar Bronfman.

Clive was born in Johannebsurg, South Africa, in 1946 and attended School at Highlands North Boys High school before moving to the U.K in 1975. As of 2015 Clive has been listed as #23 in Britian and #687 wealthiest men in the world and now resides in the Cayman Islands soaking up the sun.

2.)Mark Shuttelwroth

Many have dreamed of one day travelling into space but Mark didn't just follow his dreams he went right ahead and achieved them. In April 2002 Mark became the 2nd Self Funded space tourist to be sent into space aboard the russian Soyuz TM-34 mission where he spent 10 days in space and 8 of those was aboard the International Space station.

Shuttelworth earned his money by founding Thawte Consulting in 1995, which created and specialized in online digital certificates and Internet security systems, and later sold this in 1999 to Versign for a whopping $575 million. He continued his success by forming HBD Venture capital in 2000 and then in 2004 he formed Canonical Ltd., a free software company for the development of the Ubuntu operating system.

Mark was born in Welkom, Free state, South Africa in 1973 and obtained a Bachelor of Business Science in Finance and Information systems at the University of Cape Town.

1.) Elon Musk

Now I'm sure this name many will know? This Science fanatic is responsible for many key products such as Paypal, he is the CEO and product Architect for Tesla Motors, is chairman for SolarCity with his cousin Lyndon Rive and Chairman of OpenAi.

Elon is also the founder of Space X, which he established in 2001 and manufactures Space rockets for NASA. It is the largest private producer of rocket motors in the world and holds the record for the highest thrust to weight ratio for any rocket motor.

Elon is still working on many new projects but his 2 most controversial projects are the Hyperloop and OpenAI. The hyperloop is a proposed new form of travel between the Los Angeles area and San Francisco bay. If conceived it is estimated that a trip between these 2 areas of 350 miles will take approximately 35 minutes, less time then it would take you to finish an episode of Friends. OpenAI is a not for profit artificial intelligence research company which aims to develop Artificial general Intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity. Terminator here we come!

Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971 to a Canadian model and a South African electro-mechanical engineer. He moved to Canada in 1989 after graduating at Pretoria Boys High School.

Never let your status, your lively hood or your past define your future, if these men, as ordinary as you and I when they started, can change the world and create or invent great things, then what is stopping us from doing the same. Follow your passion, follow your dreams as crazy as they may sound and bring forth a brighter greater world for our children to continue to live in.