April 6 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on Thursday nominated co-founder and former Chief Know-how Officer JB Straubel to the board at a time when some buyers have expressed concern a couple of lack of succession planning on the electrical carmaker led by Chief Government Elon Musk.
Tesla additionally named Tom Zhu, who led development and operations of Tesla's Shanghai manufacturing facility, as senior vice chairman for automotive operations. This makes him one of many 4 govt officers at Tesla, together with Musk, Chief Monetary Officer Zachary Kirkhorn and powertrain head Andrew Baglino.
Some Tesla buyers have expressed concern that Musk's acquisition and management of Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion final yr, may stretch the billionaire skinny and distract him from working the carmaker.
Tesla shares posted their steepest annual drop final yr, hit by issues about Musk's consideration to Twitter and softening demand for electrical automobiles in China, america and elsewhere.
Tesla shareholders are set to vote on Might 16 on an investor proposal for the corporate to publish a report on “Key-Individual Threat”, reflecting issues that the carmaker depends too closely on Musk's management. The proposal seeks to establish key individuals, succession processes and different “actions to ameliorate the impacts of their potential loss.”
The board recommends voting towards the report, saying the proposal “would trigger pointless aggressive hurt to Tesla.”
James Murdoch, a Tesla director, testified in courtroom in November that Musk had in the previous few months recognized somebody as a possible successor to move the electrical carmaker, with out naming the potential successor.
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If elected on the annual assembly on Might 16, Straubel would succeed Hiromichi Mizuno, who won't stand for re-election.
Straubel joined Tesla in 2004 and spent 14 years because the chief know-how officer. He has been credited with Tesla's battery cell design and in addition led the development and idea of Gigafactory Nevada and the manufacturing of Mannequin 3.
Tasked with Tesla’s groundbreaking battery know-how since Tesla’s early beginnings, Straubel directed improvement of the plan to make smooth electrical automobiles powered by bundled laptop computer batteries.
The understated Straubel had been seen as a great associate for showy Musk, earlier than stepping down in 2019 when the automaker was grappling with losses. Straubel has since based Redwood Supplies Inc, a battery recycling firm.
On Thursday, Tesla additionally nominated Musk and board chair Robyn Denholm to be reelected as administrators to the eight-member board.
Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Nivedita Balu and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Devika Syamnath, Stephen Coates and David Gregorio
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