Elon Musk reveals a fresh-faced 34-year-old is taking over as Tesla's CFO in a shock announcement that sent shares tumbling
- Zach Kirkhorn, 34, will replace 56-year-old Deepak Ahuja as Tesla's chief financial officer
- Tesla boss Elon Musk made the shock announcement in the final moments of an earnings conference call on Wednesday night
- Shares of the electric carmaker were under pressure on Thursday following the surprise replacement of the company's CFO
- Kirkhorn is currently a vice president in finance at Tesla
- He started at Tesla in 2010 as a senior analyst but left briefly to complete an MBA at Harvard Business School
- Kirkhorn will step into as CFO after being groomed by his predecessor
Elon Musk has revealed that a fresh-faced 34-year-old will be taking over as Teslas's chief financial officer in a shock announcement that sent shares tumbling.
Shares of the electric carmaker were under pressure on Thursday following the surprise replacement of the company's CFO.
Musk announced the shift in the final moments of an earnings conference call on Wednesday night, saying 56-year-old Deepak Ahuja would be handing over the reins to Zach Kirkhorn.
Kirkhorn is currently a vice president in finance at Tesla.
Elon Musk announced the CFO shift in the final moments of an earnings conference call on Wednesday night, saying 56-year-old Deepak Ahuja would be handing over the reins to 34-year-old Zach Kirkhorn
The 34-year-old started at Tesla in 2010 as a senior analyst but left briefly to complete an MBA at Harvard Business School.
He returned in 2011 as a senior manager in finance and has been promoted to director, senior director and vice president of finance in the nine years that followed.
His job out of school in 2007 was with McKinsey & Co.
Kirkhorn will step into the CFO role after several months of grooming by his predecessor, Bloomberg reports.
Ahuja initially retired from Tesla back in 2015 but returned when his successor, Jason Wheeler, left after 15 months.
Musk said Ahuja will go back into retirement after Kirkhorn takes the reins but will stay on as a senior advisor for several years.
Elon Musk has revealed on Wednesday that the 34-year-old would be taking over as Teslas's chief financial officer in a shock announcement that sent shares tumbling
'Super appreciate Deepak's 11 year history building Tesla & wish him greatest of happiness in retirement! Zach has been outstanding over his 9 year history with Tesla & will build upon Deepak's legacy,' Musk said in a tweet last week.
Ahuja's departure follows other executive turnover at the hard-charging Musk's electric car company.
A note from JPMorgan Chase highlighted the exit as a key disappointment following Tesla's mixed results, citing the outgoing executive's 'long automotive industry experience' and 11 years at the company.
Ahuja 'provided relative stability to the firm's finance staff that has otherwise seen a great deal of churn,' the JPMorgan note said.
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A Canaccord Genuity note said Ahuja's exit was 'likely to stir investor concerns around corporate culture of Tesla, which has been a concern in the past.'
Tesla shares were down 0.4 percent at $307.42 at mid-morning on Thursday after falling as much as 4.8 percent earlier in the session following Musk's shock announcement.
Kirkhorn told analysts the company was in a 'strong' financial position.
'We have enough cash to continue launching new programs and developing new technologies and we're able to service upcoming debt obligations with our forecasted cash flows,' he said.
