Tesla board member says Elon Musk recognized potential successor as CEO By Reuters

By Hyunjoo Jin and Paresh Dave

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -James Murdoch, a Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc director, testified in courtroom on Wednesday that CEO Elon Musk has in the previous couple of months recognized somebody as a possible successor to move the electrical carmaker.

Murdoch, who didn’t title the potential successor, was testifying in a trial over Musk’s 2018 Tesla pay package deal.

When a plaintiff’s lawyer requested him to substantiate that Musk has by no means recognized somebody as a possible successor CEO, Murdoch mentioned, “He really has,” including that occurred within the “previous couple of months.”

Some Tesla buyers are fearful about whether or not Musk can focus adequately on his function as CEO of the world’s most respected carmaker now that he has been operating Twitter Inc (NYSE:) after a protracted buyout that at one level he tried to scrap. Murdoch testified that Musk has had some Tesla engineers work at Twitter, a state of affairs the board is monitoring.

Murdoch’s testimony didn’t make it clear how particular the dialog in regards to the successor was. Antonio Gracias, a longtime good friend of Musk who was additionally a Tesla board member from 2007 to 2021, testified that there have been conversations of discovering an “administrative CEO” who oversees gross sales, finance and human sources “so Musk can focus his time as chief product officer which is his most important operate.” However he added they might not discover one, with out elaborating on the timing of the discussions.

Musk, who’s CEO of Twitter and rocket firm Area X, amongst others mentioned, “Frankly I do not wish to be CEO of any firm.”

Musk testified that he anticipated to scale back his time at Twitter and finally discover a new chief to run the social media firm.

On Monday, Musk mentioned he had labored via the evening at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters and would maintain “working & sleeping right here” till the social media platform – which he just lately acquired for $44 billion – was fastened.

“AS LONG AS I CAN BE USEFUL”

“It is price noting there is a gentle yr hole between figuring out somebody and having that somebody take the job,” Tesla investor Gene Muster tweeted after the information.

At Tesla’s shareholders assembly in August, Musk was requested about succession plan and replied: “I intend to stick with Tesla so long as I will be helpful.”

On the time, Musk additionally mentioned, “We do have a really proficient group right here. So I feel Tesla would proceed to do very properly even when I used to be kidnapped by aliens or went again to my residence planet possibly.”

Murdoch testified that Tesla’s audit committee is monitoring the Twitter state of affairs, saying that the committee had discussions about having some Tesla engineers do work at Twitter.

“Many of the work my understanding is has been carried out. It was a short-term deployment,” he mentioned, including the work is “paid for.”

“The audit committee has mentioned that, whether it is taking away from Tesla work, that is one thing we additionally need to be very conscious of and that we do not need it to be that means.”

He additionally mentioned Musk requested a couple of group heads to see in the event that they had been folks enthusiastic about serving to Twitter.

Musk acknowledged in his testimony that some Tesla engineers had been aiding in evaluating Twitter’s engineering groups, however he mentioned it was on a “voluntary foundation” and carried out “after hours.”