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Shai Agassi - Agenda Setters 2009

Name: Shai Agassi

Title: Better Place founder

Position: 21 Last year: 44

Why? Influencing the green car market

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Like fellow Agenda Setter Elon Musk, Shai Agassi has a history of notable achievements in tech - in Agassi's case, founding start-ups and working his way up the ranks of SAP - but he got the panel's nod this year for his influential work in the field of green tech.

But unlike Musk's Tesla, Agassi has his sights on a whole new business model for the automobile industry. Agassi's model sees the car industry mimic that of the mobile phone - by giving away the vehicles for free, suppliers can make money off the 'minutes' of electricity that users put into their car at dedicated filling stations.

It's a concept that one panellist viewed as essential to the future of the electric car: "Agassi combined tech and infrastructure development with political persuasion to begin to create the necessary infrastructure for the replacement of the petroleum vehicle fleet."

It's not just his ambitious vision that panellists noted - it's his ability to get the moneymen to join in. "He's working hard on the infrastructure leaps required to bury the internal combustion engine and has even convinced the VCs he can do it," said one.

Before founding Better Place, Agassi was president of the products and technology group at SAP and a member of the software company's executive board.