Ed Whitacre thinks that companies have a responsibility to work on new technologies. As former CEO of General Motors, Whitacre took America’s biggest corporate failure and quickly moved it back into profitability. At the time in 2009, GM was burdened with bureaucracy, which Whitacre saw as part of the problem. He gave the company a new mission: to design, build, and sell the best vehicles. Soon afterwards GM unveiled the Chevy Volt.

Whitacre is optimistic about the future for the electric vehicles. Whitacre is a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000.