Shai Agassi

Shai Agassi
Agassi in 2008
Born (1968-04-19) April 19, 1968 (age 56)
Ramat-Gan, Israel[1]
EducationTechnion (BA)
OccupationFounder of Better Place
SpouseTami Chotoveli[2]
Children5[3]

Shai Agassi (Hebrew: שי אגסי, born April 19, 1968)[4] is an Israeli entrepreneur known for his involvement in the electric vehicle industry. He is the founder and former CEO of Better Place, which had developed a model and infrastructure for employing electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology. The company went bankrupt in 2013, after Agassi spent over $850 million on publicity while deploying fewer than 1000 cars.[5]

Prior to founding Better Place, Agassi was President of the Products and Technology Group (PTG) at SAP AG until 2007. In 2003, at the age of 36, Agassi was named one of the top 20 'Global Influentials for 2003' by CNN-Time magazine.[6] In 2008, he was named one of TIME's "Heroes of the Environment".[7] In 2009, Agassi was included in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people list.[8] In 2010, Foreign Policy magazine included Agassi on its annual list of the 100 most influential global thinkers.[9]

Throughout the 1990s, Agassi started and sold a number of technology startups, in the areas of enterprise software, internet technology, multimedia and small business administration. Agassi has a bachelor's degree in computer science and has been awarded a large number of patents in software, automotive and energy infrastructure.

  1. ^ "Shai Agassi Reference". eNotes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  2. ^ "Birnbaum - אגסי Agassi, Shai ben Reuven". Wertheimer.info. 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  3. ^ "SAP AG / On the Record: Shai Agassi He's looking to find genius - all over the world". SFGate. 2006-06-11. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  4. ^ "Agassi, Shai". Current Biography Yearbook 2010. Ipswich, MA: H.W. Wilson. 2010. pp. 1–5. ISBN 9780824211134.
  5. ^ Blum, Brian (2017). Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World. Blue Pepper Press. ISBN 978-0-9830-4281-5.
  6. ^ Time (magazine)
  7. ^ "Shai Agassi". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  8. ^ Salzman, Alan."The 2009 TIME 100:Shai Agassi". TIME magazine. 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
  9. ^ "Foreign Policy's Second Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2013-12-01.