Daijiworld Media Network - San Francisco
San Francisco, Oct 29: Tesla is reportedly considering internal candidates to succeed Elon Musk as CEO if shareholders fail to approve his proposed $1 trillion pay package at the company’s annual meeting next week, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing board chair Robyn Denholm.
Denholm, in a message to investors on Monday, urged them to vote in favour of the compensation plan, emphasizing the need to retain Musk’s leadership as Tesla transitions toward developing self-driving technologies and humanoid robots.
The development highlights how deeply intertwined Musk’s image is with Tesla’s success and investor confidence, even as the company faces growing pressure to diversify its leadership.
Tesla’s proposed compensation deal would grant Musk 12 tranches of stock options linked to massive performance targets — including achieving a staggering $8.5 trillion market capitalization and meeting milestones in autonomous driving and robotics.
The automaker has seen several top executives depart in recent years, leaving a relatively thin leadership layer. Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja and Senior Vice President of Automotive Tom Zhu are now considered Tesla’s most senior leaders after Musk.
Tesla has not yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment on the development.