Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which gives rich cash awards to the inventors and engineers who'll get us back to the moon, build a better car and explore the genome. And watch for more prizes to come.
Why you should listen to him:
Peter Diamandis is the founder of the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is simply "to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity." By offering a big cash prize for a specific accomplishment, the X Prize stimulates competition and excitement around some of the planet's most important goals.
Diamandas' background is in space exploration -- before the X Prize, he ran a company that studied low-cost launching technologies and another company that took civilians on rides into the upper atmosphere. But though the X Prize's first $10 million went to a space-themed challenge, Diamandas' goal now is to extend the prize into health care, social policy, education and many other fields that could use a dose of competitive innovation.
