But she’ll have to stay with Telstra until May.
In an announcement, US electric carmaker Tesla have confirmed their pick to fill the role of Chairman of the Board, promoting director and Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm to the role. The chairmanship was previously held by Elon Musk, who remains as CEO, but was forced to hand over the position as part of a settlement deal with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (in addition to US$40-million in fines levelled at both Musk & Tesla).
“I believe in Tesla, and I believe in its mission. I look forward to helping Elon & the Tesla team to achieve sustainable profitability and drive long-term shareholder value.” — Robyn Denholm, Chairman of the Board, Tesla Inc.
Denholm has served Tesla as an independent director since 2014. She has only just been promoted to the position of Chief Financial Officer at Australian telco giant Telstra, and will have to serve another 6-months in that role before she can assume full duty as chairman of the American EV carmaker. Telstra has said that they will streamline her work to ensure that her new role “will not detract from her ability to focus on her responsibilities as the Telstra CFO” between now and when she relinquishes the role completely in May 2019.
“Robyn has extensive experience in both the tech & auto industries, and she has made significant contributions as a Tesla board member over the past four years, helping us become a profitable company. I look forwards to working even more closely with Robyn as we continue accelerating the advent of sustainable energy.” — Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc.
In the meantime, Denholm’s responsibilities at the head of Tesla will be ‘assisted’ by another director from its 9-strong board for the time being. Tesla has said that Musk “will be a resource… and provide any support that she requests in her role as chair,” which we find interesting. Musk is barred from taking the chairmanship for another 3-years as a result of a misleading tweet, where he claimed that he had “secured funding” to privatise the company at US$420/share when he most certainly did not.
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