Tesla CFO steps down

By Neil Dowling on 14th August 2023 Personnel Articles Kirkhorn, Tesla

TESLA’S chief financial officer “Master of Coin” Zachary Kirkhorn has stepped down after 13 years in the job.

He was considered a possible successor to CEO and “Technoking” Elon Musk.

Tesla, which did not give a reason for the departure, said Mr Kirkhorn’s successor will be current head of accounting, Vaibhav Taneja (45) who will take on the CFO role in addition to his current duties.

Mr Kirkhorn will stay with Tesla until the end of the year to support “a seamless transition,” the company said.

His successor, Mr Taneja, has held several positions at the battery electric vehicle (BEV) pioneer before becoming accounting chief in 2019.

He joined solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in 2016, the same year that it was acquired by Tesla for $US2.6 billion, before which he worked for almost 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and the US.

Mr Kirkhorn’s decision to step down marks the highest-profile executive change at TESLA since long-time executive Jerome Guillen, who oversaw its electric Semi truck development, left in 2021.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Musk said: “I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years. Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career.”

Mr Kirkhorn joined Tesla in 2010 as a senior financial analyst and was promoted five times, most recently to CFO in early 2019 at the age of 34.

Before he took on the role, Tesla had a long history of losses and occasionally burned more than $US1 billion of cash per quarter.

The company has been consistently profitable since then and repaid about $US10 billion of debt in the past three years, helping it secure investment-grade ratings. It also joined the S&P 500 Index in December 2020.

Mr Kirkhon wrote on LinkedIn: “Being a part of this company is a special experience and I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done together.

“I also want to thank Elon for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people.”

The executive added “Master of Coin” to his job title in early 2021, about a month after Tesla disclosed it had made a $US1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. The tongue-in-cheek title was given at the same time Mr Musk became “Technoking of Tesla.”