Tesla hires the boss to supervise the musk

The opening of a new president was created under an agreement with securities regulators to strengthen the supervision of Mr. Musk.

Those who worked with Mrs. Denholm at Telstra Corp. say that she is weighted and direct.

Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems, where Ms. Denholm held increasingly senior positions from 1996 to 2007, said she could be a good complement to Mr. Musk, he said. it allowed him.

"Elon wants the camera, he wants the microphone – Robyn does not care about that," McNealy said in an interview. "She's more COO-ish than flamboyant CEO. It strives to ensure that trains run on time, that money is spent properly and that all stakeholders are well-listened to. "

Many details about Ms. Denholm's role remain unclear, including what she will do between board meetings. Wednesday's announcement announced she was immediately assuming the position of president, but would continue in Telstra for six months. Tesla said Mr. Musk, to ensure a smooth transition during this period, "would be a resource for Robyn and provide the support that she would ask for".

Tesla said that it was not yet clear whether Mrs. Denholm would leave Australia to settle in Silicon Valley – where she is based and where she spent nearly two decades in to work – after leaving Telstra. Ms. Denholm will receive an annual retainer of $ 300,000 and 8,000 stock options each year, Tesla said.

Supervising Mr. Musk would be a monumental task, even for the most assertive president. The CEO, who also held the title of Chief Product Architect, led Tesla almost as an extension of himself, leading activities as diverse as strategy, marketing and engineering, while immersing himself in every detail of the production. He is famous for talking about Twitter at any time of day and night. In September, he seemed to smoke marijuana during an online interview with an actor.

The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States that led to the appointment of Ms. Denholm stems from Mr. Musk's tweets of August 7 highlighting the idea of ​​making Tesla a private matter and claiming he had obtained the financing of a $ 420 contract per share. The shares initially skyrocketed with the unexpected news, and then dropped, as it became clear over the next few days that Mr Musk did not have a complete plan.

The SEC alleged that Mr. Musk had no frozen funds and accused him of choosing this price – a reference to marijuana – to impress his girlfriend.

The September 29 settlement with the SEC, in which Mr. Musk neither admitted nor denied the wrongdoing, forced Mr. Musk to resign as president for three years, effective November 13, but let him remain at the head of Tesla's board and board. member. Mr. Musk and Tesla were each fined $ 20 million. Tesla was forced to add two new independent members to the board of directors and to put in place a monitoring system for Mr. Musk's public statements. Tesla has until the end of December to meet these requirements.

Enthusiasm for Mr. Musk's vision of the future, including electric cars driving themselves, has helped push Tesla's market value to competition

General Motors
Co.

Although Tesla has never made an annual profit and sells a fraction of the cars. Tesla's growth was largely fueled by its continued access to capital, whether through the issuance of new shares or the borrowing of new debt.

As a member of the Tesla Board of Directors, Ms. Denholm has provided a rare automotive experience to a company that prides itself on being an industry outsider. She spent seven years at

Toyota engine
Corp.

in Australia, where she was CFO, before working for Sun and then joining

Juniper Networks
Inc.

in 2007. She left this position as director of finance and operations in 2016 and joined Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company, in 2017.

"This is not someone who will sit at the back and not share a point of view," said David Meline, chief financial officer at American drug maker Amgen. Inc., who sat with Ms. Denholm on the board of directors of the Swiss engineering company.

ABB
Ltd.

"She is" someone who will certainly make their point. "

It is rare for one person to give up a full-time position as a senior manager of one company to lead another's board of directors, say governance experts. d & # 39; company.

"It's an opportunity to really redefine what it means to be a board chairman and dynamic, with a CEO as enterprising and ambitious as Elon," said Jeffrey Cohn, managing partner at DHR International, a recruitment company. frames. "And it's possible that she knows that she can not succeed without being a full-time president."

Ms. Denholm has been a member of Tesla's board for four years, but has less ties to Mr. Musk than most other directors. Tesla's board has been criticized by some investors and argues for perceived lack of independence, as most directors have close professional or personal relationships with Mr. Musk.

Some investors applauded the appointment of Mrs. Denholm. Tesla shares edged up 0.93% to $ 351.40, more than 40% above their year-to-date low of $ 387.46 after Musk's tweet on privatisation.

"Among the current directors, she is a good choice," said Dieter Waizenegger, executive director of CtW Investment Group, which represents union-sponsored pension funds that own Tesla shares and who has criticized Tesla's governance. The proof of her "independent leadership will be whether she can turn the board into a functional entity that can guide the CEO," he said in an email.

Gabe Hoffman, a fund manager who makes a bearish bet on the Tesla stock, said that Ms. Denholm was a bad choice because she is currently a member of the board of directors rather than being appointed to a new appointment and because she is the only board member 1/2 times in the world, with a huge time difference. "

– Susan Pulliam, Vanessa Fuhrmans and Dan Strumpf contributed to this article.

Write to Tim Higgins at [email protected]