On Wednesday night, Tesla in a blog post announced Robyn Denholm has taken as Chair of the company’s board replacing outgoing Chairman Elon Musk.
Since 2014 Robyn Denholm has been a member; when the electric car maker was still producing just one vehicle, the Model S. She is no stranger to Tesla’s hyper-driven environment and ambitious goals, being witness to the growing pains the company went through with the Model X ramp and the Model 3’s production hell.
Robyn has far-reaching experience in both ends of tech and auto industries, and she has made significant contributions as a Tesla Board member over the past four years in helping us become a profitable company- Elon Musk
Denholm will preside over Tesla’s board effective immediately and will leave her role as CFO and head of strategy at Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company, once her six-month notice period with Telstra is complete.
Tesla’s stock, which closed at $348.16 a share, had tumbled by more 25 percent on Wednesday but began to rise especially after the electric vehicle maker reported its largest quarterly profit in the company’s history. As per sources, once Denholm leaves Telstra she will receive 8,000 stock options each year and a cash retainer of $300,000.
It seems to be the end of an era for Musk, while he’ll remain the chief executive officer, the fallout from Musk’s posts in which he claimed to have secured the funding and investor support to buy out investors at $420 a share will last for years to come. In addition to agreeing to a three-year ban from serving as chairman, Musk and Tesla agreed that the company would add two new independent directors to the board by late December.
