Tesla boss Elon Musk lost his “Master of Coin” – and possible successor to run the electric car maker – after Zachary Kirkhorn stepped down as Chief Finance Officer.
The company on Monday said Chief Accounting Officer Vaibhav Taneja will take over as CFO following the surprise shakeup involving Kirkhorn, whose departure was announced in an SEC filing by the company Aug. 4.
Shares of Tesla plunged 3.5% on Monday’s news but rallied to close down less than 1%, at $251.45 share, by the end of the day.
It’s unclear what led to Kirkhorn’s surprise decision to part with Musk after four years as CFO ahead of Tesla’s much-anticipated launch of the Cybertruck later this year.
It also raises questions about succession planning for the 52-year-old Musk, who also runs SpaceX and the rebranded Twitter site X.
Board members had discussed Kirkhorn as a possible successor to Musk as CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.
The Post reached out to Tesla for comment.
“I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years,” Musk tweeted.
Kirkhorn was just 34 when he joined Tesla in 2010 and has helped Musk implement his vision for transforming the car industry.
The soft-spoken executive was seen as a balance to the more volatile Musk and was one of the most visible leaders who often spoke on calls with analysts and made presentations on strategy and products.
“He was able to be an effective liaison communicator between Elon and other executives …that would be a skillset that is hard to come by and very valuable but hard to quantify,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, a Tesla investor.
During Kirkhorn’s tenure, Tesla posted its first quarterly profit after it launched the mass-market Model 3 compact sedan and hit a market valuation of more than $1 trillion.
Musk dubbed him “Master of Coin,” a reference to a “Game of Thrones” character, in 2021.
“Being a part of this company is a special experience and I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done together since I joined over 13 years ago,” Kirkhorn said in a LinkedIn post.
Kirkhorn did not respond to queries when contacted on LinkedIn.
Prior to joining Tesla, Kirkhorn held several roles at SolarCity Corp., a US-based solar panel developer acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2016.
He will stay on through the end of 2023 to assist Taneja with the transition.
The Indian-born executive has worked for Tesla since February 2017, when he joined the company as an assistant corporate controller.
“That he’s going to be around until the end of the year is evidence that this is just for personal reasons and the personal reason is likely that working with Elon Musk is really hard and he’s done it for 13 years,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management.
Tesla shares have soared roughly 130% this year as demand has improved for the high-tech cars..
Last month, Tesla reported better-than-expected Q2 numbers, citing price cuts that helped the company delivery 466,140 vehicles in the April to June period, up 10% from the preceding quarter and 83% higher from a year earlier.
The gap between how many cars Tesla produces and delivers also narrowed to 13,560 in the second quarter from 17,933 in the previous three months.
The world’s electric-vehicle leader is projected to deliver 1.8 million Teslas this year, topping its record 1.3 million in 2022.
Tesla slashed prices worldwide by up to 20% in January, sparking a price war after the company’s failure to meet Wall Street’s delivery estimates for 2022.
The basic Model Y that used to sell for $65,990 now costs $54,990.
With Post wires
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