Tesla announces that 4 council members will leave

On Friday night, Tesla announced that 4 board members would be leaving at the end of their term this year and 2020.

With the release of Tesla's Preliminary Proxy Statement at the next shareholders' meeting, the builder announced that the board members, Brad Buss, Antonio Gracias, Stephen Jurvetson and Linda Johnson Rice would not be candidates re-election at the end of their current term. .

Tesla says the goal is to implement "a gradual streamlining of the size of the board to enable it to operate more skillfully and effectively while maintaining new ideas, skills and experiences within the board" .

They describe the "progressive rationalization" in a repository:

"Therefore, on April 18, 2019, Brad Buss, Antonio Gracias, Stephen Jurvetson and Linda Johnson Rice collectively agreed with the Board and its Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee that each of them will not would not present to a reelection. the board at the expiry of their respective respective mandates, to be held at the 2019 annual meeting of shareholders for Mr. Buss and Ms. Rice, at the 2020 annual meeting of shareholders for M Jurvetson and, if our shareholders approve a director mandate reduction proposal described in Mr. Gracias' Preliminary Statement of Proxy. If our shareholders do not approve of this proposal, Mr. Gracias' term of office will end at the annual meeting of shareholders of 2021. These agreements do not result in any disagreement between Tesla and any of these directors. "

Board members did not comment on this announcement.

Here is Tesla's Proxy Statement:

Electrek's Take

This is an interesting step to interpret. When a business loses 30% of its board, it is usually bad news.

We could take it literally because the commission has grown so much in the last 18 months that it would make sense to rationalize it a bit.

But then we have to consider who these board members are and their relationship with Tesla and Elon Musk.

Antonio Gracias and Stephen Jurvetson are longtime friends of Elon and investors in his businesses.

The latter went on leave after the publication of allegations of reprehensible conduct in his live television business, but he is returning from leave this month after filing the complaint.

Jurvetson is a long-time supporter of Tesla's mission and Elon's vision at Tesla and SpaceX. He was definitely an ally of Elon on the board of directors.

Gracias and Buss have similar stories.

Linda Johnson Rice is a different story. She was appointed to the board while Tesla was under pressure to bring more independent members to the board.

But she is the exception. For the most part, it seems that Elon loses powerful allies on the board.

So what's going on? Did they want to leave? Elon lose control of the board? Is it a simple rationalization?

Honestly, I do not know. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.