Tesla has announced a new chair of its board of directors: Robyn Denholm. The move is part of the deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims that CEO Elon Musk misled investors. The deal prohibits Musk from serving as chairman of the company for three years. He will remain CEO of Tesla.
Denholm, who has served on Tesla’s board since 2014, will leave her role as CFO of Telstra, the Australian telecom giant, in six months.
Prior to working at Telstra, Denholm spent seven years at Toyota in Australia, where she was a senior financial manager. Prior to that she worked at Sun Microsystems and Juniper Networks in Silicon Valley.
Tesla’s conflict with the SEC began in August, when Musk tweeted that he was taking the electric vehicle company private and had “funding secured” at $420 a share. The company’s share price soared, and then plummeted when it turned out there was no such funding after all.
Musk did not comment about the move on Twitter, but he did laud his colleague in a company statement.
“Robyn has extensive experience in both the tech and auto industries, and she has made significant contributions as a Tesla Board member over the past four years in helping us become a profitable company,” Musk said. “I look forward to working even more closely with Robyn as we continue accelerating the advent of sustainable energy.”
