Tesla (TSLA, $341.06 ) Announces Robyn Denholm as New Chair To Succeed Elon Musk
Tesla has a new board chair to replace Elon Musk. On Wednesday, the electric car making company announced that Robyn Denholm will succeed Musk, after the latter has to step down as company chairman (while continuing to be its CEO) following a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Denholm is currently the chief financial officer of Australian telecommunications company Telstra, and also a member of Tesla’s board.
This year, Tesla has been through a roller-coaster mostly in terms of headline-grabbing declarations from its CEO Musk and the consequent clashes with regulators. The SEC charged Elon Musk of misleading investors by tweeting in August that he had secured funding at $420 per share for taking Tesla private. The SEC alleged that the funding information was inaccurate and that he did not really secure funding when he posted the tweet. As part of settling charges with the SEC, Musk agreed to step down as chairperson of the board and pay $20 million in fines. Although Musk can remain a board member and CEO of Tesla, he is not permitted to seek reelection as chairman for three years, per the settlement’s terms.
Denholm will start her new position at Tesla after completing her six-month notice period with Telstra. At Telstra, she was part of a team that was involved in a major cost cutting program that included entrenching 8,000 jobs. Denholm’s work history also includes working as non-executive director and member of the finance & audit committee for Swiss conglomerate ABB, vice president and chief financial officer at networking hardware company Juniper Networks, Australia finance manager for Toyota, among other positions. After she takes office as chairperson of Tesla’s board, all (investors') eyes would potentially be on how far she would be able to ensure sustained profitability of the company.
