Who should be Tesla's new Chair?

[strangecosmos]

At least for the next 3 years, Tesla is going to need a new Chair: an independent Chair, meaning someone who doesn't work for Tesla — although it could be one of the independent directors who currently serves on the Board.

A few ideas sprang to my mind:

Larry Page? No, Alphabet owns Waymo, which is competing with Tesla. Conflict of interest.

Sam Altman? Elon stepped down from the Board of OpenAI because Tesla is an aspiring AI company and that's a conflict of interest. So, Sam probably wouldn't do it because that would leave OpenAI without a leader.

What about... Richard Branson? Branson seems into big exciting ideas that are technologically ambitious. For instance, he's the Chair of Virgin Hyperloop One. Although Virgin Galactic is a competitor to SpaceX, that might be okay. Arthur Levinson, for example, is the Chair of Apple and the Chair of the Alphabet subsidiary Calico, even though Apple and Google are competitors.

Maybe someone from the auto industry would be a good pick, but those folks tend to be technologically conservative and not savvy with software or AI. As time goes on, AI is going to be increasingly important to Tesla's business model, and traditional auto manufacturing will therefore decrease in relative importance.

Any ideas?

 

[malcolm]

Gwynne Shotwell

 

[strangecosmos]

Gwynne Shotwell

Unlike Elon, some people just want to run one company!

 

[Tiger]

Rich Rebuilds and Neil deGrasse Tyson ought to join Tesla's board of directors.

 

[clmason]

Couple out of the box ideas...

Al Gore- environmentalists and can help Tesla navigate global political landscape.

Neil deGrasse Tyson - well know scientist who recently called Elon the modern day Thomas Edison. Can help spread the Tesla vision.

 

[alloverx]

I will do it for 1/20 of Elon's salary. Will also sleep in factory as required.

 

[Dutchie]

Mark B Spiegel

 

[strangecosmos]

Al Gore serves on Apple's Board, so he has some experience. I guess Neil deGrasse Tyson has some managerial experience running a planetarium and museum, and small business ventures like StarTalk Radio. Maybe he could be an independent director. I would certainly not recommend him as Chair, though. Doesn't seem like he has enough experience. I would ideally want someone who has experience as Chair or CEO of a large public company.

 

[Tam]

I will do it for 1/20 of Elon's salary. Will also sleep in factory as required.

Very GOOOOD!!!!!

"Musk made $49,920 in salary in 2017 with no other compensation"

That's for working as both Chairman and CEO!

Let keep that same salary as if it's for 1 position instead of 2, so 1/20 of that is $2,496.

Since the company will have to pay all these millions in SEC fines, maybe you should also pay Tesla to sleep in the factory as if it's a hotel too!

How about $200 per factory sleep night. So, after sleeping a dozen nights, your $2,496 salary will be completely wiped out

 

[dqd88]

I think you need big names to give big investors peace of mind. My nominees:

Eric Schmidt
Reid Hoffman
Bill Gates
Sheryl Sandberg
Bob Iger
Reed Hastings
Jeff Bezos
Jack Ma
Carlos Ghosn

 

[strangecosmos]

Reid Hoffman

I don’t think he’s a running a company right now, so he might have time. Plus he’s a donor to OpenAI, so he’s on board with that (former?) Elon venture.

 

[fmm]

Reid Hoffman was an early PayPal employee so there is another connection there. I do think it's far more likely that one of the existing Independent Directors becomes the next Chairman.

 

[sjoshuaj]

Bonnie

 

[dqd88]

I don’t think he’s a running a company right now, so he might have time. Plus he’s a donor to OpenAI, so he’s on board with that (former?) Elon venture.

Yeah Reid is one of the former PayPal "mafia" with Elon. So they are tight.

 

[heltok]

Let's aim a bit higher: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

 

[Cattledog]

Jensen Huang would be good, though Tesla is apparently now designing its own chips.

 

[MissAutobahn]

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Everything began with the regulation carmakers had to follow, when they wanted to sell cars in California.
From that moment on carmakers were forced to develope emobility.

We need a terminator now that doesn't follow the rules of Wallstreet.

 

[Tam]

Arnold Schwarzenegger

It's enough to watch judge Brett Kavanaugh on TV last week and I have no tolerance for Arnold Schwarzenegger who is also known as Gropernator/Gropinator.

 

[RFernatt]

Alan Mulally, Chairman
Fred Smith, new independent board member

I'd stay away from political figures. Need directors with deep business acumen that will support and challenge Elon.

 

[SPadival]

Ralph Nader. The guy who got us seat belts.