Exit, Tesla's Head of Accounting, Launches Talent Problem

He did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Tesla declined to comment beyond the regulatory filing of the company. Tesla's stock price approached its all-time low of 2018 on Friday.

Morton's tenure at Tesla coincided with an unusual public scrutiny. He joined the company on Aug. 6, a day before managing director Elon Musk used social media to consider taking Tesla privately. The message on Twitter sparked fluctuations in Tesla's stock and sparked an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last year, the SEC began investigating whether Tesla misled investors about its problems with producing model 3 cars, the Wall Street Journal reported in August. The survey was launched before regulators began to examine Mr Musk's tweets about the privatization of the company.

Meanwhile, Mr. Musk's behavior continues to cause concern: On Thursday, he appeared to be smoking marijuana in a live interview during which he talked about various topics for more than two and a half hours. .

According to executive recruiters, these problems would likely lead quality candidates to think twice before being called to management positions in the company.

"In a market like this, where demand is very high and people do not need to leave, if you have something worrying or sensitive at the top, the pool of candidates is going : "Whoa, I do not need that" "said Peter Crist, President of Executive Recruiter Crist | Kolder Associates.

Tesla, on filing, said the accounting functions and staff would be overseen by Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja and his management controller, "as was the case before and during Dave's transition to Tesla."

Musk said the company's executive turnover is comparable to that of other large companies and announced a reorganization plan aimed at smoothing the layers of management. Friday afternoon, he announced a large number of promotions in an email to employees. Tesla has also hired new talent in recent months, appointing eight new executives, including a new chief financial officer for China, James Zhou, who joined

Ingersoll Rand

PLC

A chief accountant is often responsible for certifying the financial statements submitted to the regulators, which means that the books are irreproachable. Mr. Morton's brief tenure at Tesla suggests that he did not fully assume these responsibilities.

The careful and careful nature of the reputation of financial professionals could complicate the hiring of Mr. Morton's replacement. Accountants often follow strict professional codes of ethics and may be worried about working for a company being investigated by the SEC, regardless of the outcome.

"The financial community, by nature, has an aversion to risk," said Mr. Crist. "If you're a CFO and someone comes after you with an opportunity, you'll do a pretty deep risk assessment of the situation because you do not want to have what happened today." it is easier to say "No thanks."

Morton's predecessor resigned in March after 18 months. Former CFO Jason Wheeler left Tesla in early 2017 after less than two years in this role. Mr. Ahuja, a veteran of the company who came back from his retirement, succeeded him.

These initiatives are not unprecedented, and refraining from playing a leading role in key financial functions is not necessarily a crisis for a company.

Uber Technologies Inc. has filled its position as CFO, vacant since 2015. The passenger services company said early 2016 that she was not looking for a CFO. But the research was launched seriously shortly after the inauguration of the chief executive Dara Khosrowshahicame in 2017, replacing founder Travis Kalanick, who has seen a series of scandals.

Khosrowshahi's arrival at the head of Uber probably contributed to a positive result for the company, said Mr Crist. "If you're talking about creating a financial organization, you always talk about who's at the top, who's going to attract talent," he said.

Nevertheless, Mr. Khosrowshahi has faced his own setback. He had hoped to reach an agreement with VMware Inc.'s chief financial officer, Zane Rowe, for the long-term job, but Rowe said he would turn it down, the Wall Street Journal reported in May. A spokesman for Uber declined to comment.

Candidates considering a role in a company like Tesla or Uber may ask for "risk money," said Mark Freebairn, head of financial management at Odgers Berndtson.

"These companies will have to be flexible to attract the level of talent they want," he said. "If they really want someone, they will have to come up with a package that offsets the potential risk to their reputation."

Finance leaders value their reputation first and foremost, he said.

"Elon could blow this business up in five minutes, today, in a year – and you, as an accountant or financial manager, are bound to that," he said.

Mr. Freebairn stated that he had trouble placing the old ones

Tesco

Member of the financial staff of PLC after the accounting scandal of the company in 2014. "Whenever I introduced someone from Tesco, I had questions about a potential involvement in accounting problems", said Mr. Freebairn. In September 2014, the American grocer announced that it had overestimated its profit of 263 million pounds (340.5 million dollars).

Write to Tatyana Shumsky at [email protected] and Nina Trentmann at [email protected]