Tesla Inc. wants to bring back former Chief Technology Officer and co-Founder JB Straubel as the company nominates him to the board of directors. He is currently running his own battery materials company Redwood Materials.
Nominating Co-Founder JB Straubel
Former Co-Founder JB Straubel left Tesla in 2019 to run his own startup, Redwood Materials. He joined the company in 2004 and was a Chief Technology Officer of the company for fourteen years.
TechCrunch reported that the company wants him back and nominated him as its next independent board member to take over the vacated spot of former Chief Investment Officer Hirmocichi Mizuno of Japan's $1.5 trillion pension fund, after joining the board and its audit committee in 2020.
If elected by the shareholders, Straubel will join the members of the board, including the CEO, Kimbal Musk, Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, James Murdoch, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, and newly elected eighth member Robyn Denholm.
Tesla also named Tom Zhu as Senior Vice President for Automative Operations after leading the construction and operations of Tesla's factory in Shanghai. Zhu will be one of the four executive officers at Tesla, together with Musk, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, and Powertrain Head Andrew Baglino.
Strauble as Tesla's CTO
Straubel was usually known as the quiet steady hand of Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk but his role at Tesla cannot be overlooked. He was responsible for the company's most important technology, which is batteries. But despite his understated presence, his knowledge provided stability in the company despite several controversies.
During his early beginnings with the company, Wall Street Journal reported that he was tasked with groundbreaking battery technology to direct the development of the plan to make electric vehicles powered by bundled laptop batteries. He also led the construction and concept of Gigafactory Nevada and the production ramp of its Model 3 sedan.
Running His Own Company
The former CTO then left the company in 2019 and was preceded by Vice President of Technology Drew Baligon to take over his duties. For a short period, he stayed in the company as a senior advisor.
After this, Straubel threw himself into making his own company that supplies and recycles battery materials called Redwood Materials. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Carson City, Nevada. Since then, his company landed hundreds of millions in corporate and venture capital by locking in several big company deals, including with Panasonic and Amazon.
Reuters reported that the nomination comes after shareholders hit their concerns regarding Musk, focusing more on his role as the new owner of Twitter, amidst the softening demand for electric vehicles in China, the United States, and other countries.
Shareholders of the company are set to vote on May 16 during an investor proposal for the company and will report on "Key-Person-Risk" to discuss concerns with Musk's leadership. The proposal aims to determine the key persons, succession processes, and other strategies to recover from potential losses.
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