Shai Agassi - Agenda Setters 2008

Name: Shai Agassi

Title: Better Place founder and CEO

Position: 44    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Seizing the green car market

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• Jeremy Allison
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• Christina Domecq

Shai Agassi made his name in an old-school way - first founding a series of software start-ups and then working his way up the ranks in SAP to become president of the products and technology group.

But it's what he's done since leaving SAP that earns him a spot on the Agenda Setters list - founding green car manufacturer Better Place.

Agassi aims to convince the world's drivers to abandon their gas guzzlers in favour of electric cars by creating a new infrastructure that will see charging spots spring up in retail locations and communities.

The business model is also inventive - earning money from selling not the electric cars themselves but the electricity used to power them.

It's testament to Agassi that he's not just an ideas man: venture capitalists and former SAP execs have been falling over themselves to get involved in Better Place - an ambitious vision which straddles the automotive and tech worlds.