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
Eustatia Island slightly to the north of Virgin Gorda and Prickly Pear and to the south of Necker Island. The BVI are a group of islands located approximately 1,100 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, 60 miles due east of Puerto Rico and about 120 miles northwest of St. Barts. The island was purchased in 2000 by Mike Hahn, a financier and avid sailor who grew up on Lake Erie. The island is leased by the British Crown to a company registered in the BVI named Eustatia Corporation (company # 1512465) and is entered into the Land Registry as Block 5547A. The head