Published by: Vivek Dubey
Tesla, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, has announced a major change in its top management. Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s finance chief, has quit after 13 years.
Kirkhorn, who was seen as a potential successor to CEO Elon Musk, will be replaced by Vaibhav Taneja, who will also continue to lead the accounting department.
Tesla did not give a reason for the departure, which surprised analysts.
Kirkhorn was seen as an effective and soft-spoken balance to the more volatile Musk and was one of the most visible executives.
Kirkhorn helped Tesla post its first quarterly profit, hit a market valuation of more than $1 trillion, and ramp up production of the Model 3.
Kirkhorn said he was proud of the work he had done and planned to stay on until the end of the year to support a seamless transition.
Taneja, 45, spent nearly 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining SolarCity in 2016, the same year that it was acquired by Tesla.
Musk thanked Kirkhorn for his many contributions and wished him well for the next stage of his career.
The depth of Tesla’s executive bench and the company’s succession planning have been issues of concern for investors, especially since Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter.
Tesla faces challenges such as delivering the delayed Cybertruck, completing a plant in Mexico, cutting prices of its cars, and developing a robotaxi.