Who should be Tesla's new Chair?

[Reciprocity]

Should be that little Japanese guy they are going to shoot into space. This would radically move that time line up and Elon would be the backup chairman incase anything happened.

 

[clmason]

I think the new chairman will probably be someone currently on the board.

 

[EVNow]

I wonder whether the board chairman should be someone who has been a chairman of some very large organizations, handling superstar CEOs. Who were the chairmen of boards that handled people like Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg et al ?

Current Apple chairman Levinson, I just looked up, is CEO of an Alphabet company ! Talk about conflict of interest.

Current Microsoft chairman is Thomson, who was Symantec CEO. He didn't directly handle Gates as CEO - but handled Balmer (and saw the transition to Satya).

Zuckerberg is still chairman & CEO of Facebook.

Marc Benioff is also the chairman of Salesforce - but now that he is transitioning the CEO role, may take up a chairman's role.

Larry Ellison is still the Chairman & CEO of Oracle. But he is handing over his CEO role, but is probably too old (and quite controversial himself).

I'm seeing a pattern here, most well known founder CEOs are also chairmen of their boards !

 

[Esme Es Mejor]

Oprah for Chair. Neil DeGrasse Tyson for the 2nd new director.

They’re both great at communication, and able to open the eyes of millions of people to Tesla. No worry about either one being interested in controlling the company themselves.

 

[strangecosmos]

Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt is a promising idea. He was Chair of Google/Alphabet from 2001 to 2017.

 

[SteveG3]

Oprah for Chair. Neil DeGrasse Tyson for the 2nd new director.

They’re both great at communication, and able to open the eyes of millions of people to Tesla. No worry about either one being interested in controlling the company themselves.

Yup. Oprah and Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the top of my list too. I'd also consider Sir Richard Branson, and Melinda Gates.

Tesla is in a tug of war over public perception of the company. With nearly every major media outlet pulling on the other end of the rope, Tesla needs champions who are "all world" both in good will with the public, and communications skills.

 

[Shock-On-T]

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?

Bob Lutz.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Sorry for suggesting Bob Lutz.

I realise now that would be madness, especially considering Scott Pruitt is now available.

 

[dauger]

Christine Todd Whitman, former NJ governor and former head of the EPA, for Tesla Chairwoman. Her OpEd in CNBC about misinformation against EVs shows she is level-headed, stable, and sees the truth of what’s going on.

Christine Todd Whitman: Oil industry is 'peddling misinformation' about electric vehicles

 

[uselesslogin]

Christine Todd Whitman, former NJ governor and former head of the EPA, for Tesla Chairwoman. Her OpEd in CNBC about misinformation against EVs shows she is level-headed, stable, and sees the truth of what’s going on.

Christine Todd Whitman: Oil industry is 'peddling misinformation' about electric vehicles

If I'm to vote she sounds like the best I've heard so far. Is the clock even ticking at this point? Or, does the 45 days not even start until the judge approves the settlement?

 

[oneday]

If I'm to vote she sounds like the best I've heard so far. Is the clock even ticking at this point? Or, does the 45 days not even start until the judge approves the settlement?

I agree, Christine Todd Whitman, does sound like a good choice.

I wouldn't think the clock would start until the Judge approves.

 

[Curt Renz]

ARK Invest CEO Catherine (Cathie) Wood. Three of the ETFs that she personally manages have TSLA as their largest holding.

Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood) | Twitter

 

[alloverx]

A woman is a good call these days.
On the other hand, how about Iron Man. Seems as likely as most other suggestions.

 

[Adm]

I've been thinking hard and long and I couldn't come up with the right person. Than I remembered a shareholder meeting where one person stood out of the crowd. He thought that he could replace Elon as a CEO so he could focus on other things. Maybe we should find out in what institution he's living in right now and ask him if he could find the time to take on this task.

 

[Curt Renz]

Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium CEO Josipa Petrunic - CBC interview 15 months ago:

 

[neroden]

I am sad that Al Gore issued a public statement turning down the job, because he would genuinely have been perfect. He certainly is 100% supportive of the mission, *and* he's a massively successful cleantech investor!

But apparently he's too busy. :-(

 

[lascavarian]

Indra Nooyi is available and would be an excellent choice. She knows the US investment community.

I wonder about Richard Branson. He is available and would also be an excellent choice.

They need someone that does not want a career since EM will be back in 3 yrs. The company has now demonstrated that they are on solid ground so they should have a broader choice of candidates (the job is easier). Either of these 2 could easily get a couple more to join the board. Stock would like these choices IMO.

 

[WierdMobile]

I actually think Al Gore would be one of the worst possible choices. He's famous for both his stance on climate change, and being a Democrat. If Tesla is to succeed in their mission, they need everyone to eventually be convinced that EVs are the way to go. For the people that are already going to be the hardest to convince, reading that Al Gore is Chair is not going to help. We need someone who is a believer in Tesla's mission, but not someone as polarizing as Al Gore.

 

[neroden]

Bluntly anyone who has half a brain will be as "polarizing" as Al Gore. Al Gore, an extremely mild-mannered compromiser who backs basic science, is only "polarizing" because a criminal disinformation campaign by the Republican Party and the Integrated Oil Companies attacked him.

Literally anyone with the right attitude will be attacked the same way, and Elon Musk already *is* the target of the *same* attacks from the *same* sources.

Anyone who doesn't think we should be rolling coal would be attacked exactly the same way Al Gore and Elon Musk were, and would be just as "polarizing".

 

[Rockster]

Carly Fiorina