Necker Island (British Virgin Islands) world, the challenge begins at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with the top 10 new innovations progressing to the finals at Necker Island where Branson joins the judging panel along with technology figures and investors from Silicon Valley. The Necker Cup, an exhibition tennis tournament held at the end of the tennis season, has been held on the island annually since 2012. In February 2017, former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visited Necker as guests of Sir Richard Branson. On August 22, 2011, The Great House burned down in a blaze believed to be
Jacques Necker according to his daughter in her "Vie privée de Mr. Necker" he was made director-general of the royal treasury and not Controller-General of Finance which was impossible because of his Protestant faith. Necker refused a salary, but he was not admitted to the Royal Council. He gained popularity through regulating the government's finances by attempting to divide the "taille" and the capitation tax more equally, abolishing a tax known as the "vingtième d'industrie," (a value-added tax) and establishing "monts de piété" (pawnshop-like establishments for loaning money on security). Necker tried through careful reforms (abolition of pensions, mortmain, droit de suite