Tesla offers an unprecedented look at the bench behind Elon Musk

Tesla disappointed some investors last week by offering little new information about the next-generation, lower-cost vehicles it’s working on.

What they did see was an unprecedented number of executives share the stage with Elon Musk, who irked some shareholders by funding the acquistion of Twitter at least in part by selling billions of dollars worth of Tesla stock.

Twitter didn’t come up at all during the roughly four-hour-long affair, and no one asked the CEO about the amount of time and attention he’s devoting to Tesla relative to the four other companies he runs. But the carmaker sent a clear message to those concerned about corporate governance and succession planning by putting 16 other executives in front of investors: We’re more than just Musk.

“We have an active and engaged board and management team,” Brandon Ehrhart, Tesla’s new general counsel and corporate secretary, said more than two hours into the event. “We’ve met with you, and today is the culmination of that. We’ve heard you, which is why we’re excited to share this investor day with you.”

Musk has long cared deeply about being the public face of Tesla, going back to when it was a startup just getting off the ground. While this worked to the company’s advantage for years, his seemingly constant pot-stirring has turned off some consumers. Tesla also is unusually opaque about its management team, naming just three executive officers in regulatory filings.

Here’s a recap of the executives who presented Tesla's master plan and briefed investors on its past, present and future:

Drew Baglino has been Tesla’s de-facto chief technology officer since co-founder J.B. Straubel left in 2019. He’s one of Tesla’s three named executives and has shared the spotlight with Musk on earnings calls and past events, including battery day in September 2020.

CFO Zachary Kirkhorn was given a satirical title along with Musk two years ago, but the master of coin’s focus on cost reduction has been no joke.

Tom Zhu is the carmaker’s most prominent rising star. He oversaw Asia Pacific operations, was the driving force behind the company’s Shanghai plant becoming its most productive worldwide and took over Tesla’s headquarters factory in Austin, Texas, late last year.

Lars Moravy and Franz von Holzhausen stayed at Tesla through years of high turnover among Musk’s direct reports. Moravy joined from Honda more than 13 years ago. Von Holzhausen was a designer at Volkswagen, General Motors and Mazda before joining Tesla in 2008.

Colin Campbell moved shares of rare earth metal miners and certain chip suppliers with his comments on Tesla’s next-generation drive unit. He said the powertrain will reduce silicon carbide use by 75% and that the company has designed a permanent magnet motor that won’t contain any rare earths.

Pete Bannon briefed investors on how Tesla has taken more of a hands-on role in designing low-voltage devices that are part of the wire harnesses other automakers temporarily lost supply of last year, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

David Lau spoke about how the company keeps improving its cars through over-the-air software updates and data collected from its fleet.

Ashok Elluswamy provided updates on the products Tesla markets as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, both of which are support features reliant on human drivers responsible for operating their vehicle at all times.

Rebecca Tinucci was one of only two women to present at the event. She explained how Tesla’s “Magic Dock” has opened its charging stations to other automakers’ EVs.

Karn Budhiraj, who oversees electronics, powertrain and battery supply chain, and Roshan Thomas, who manages vehicle commodities, solar, logistics, planning and capital equipment, elaborated on how Tesla managed through supply chain disruptions the last few years by closely integrating with partners and designing certain components in-house.

Mike Snyder gave an update on Megapack, Tesla’s energy storage offering for utilities and commercial customers.

Ehrhart, the new general counsel, joined from Dish Network early this year in one of Tesla’s more significant outside hires in years. He cryptically told investors that they’ll “hear more from our board at the appropriate time,” without elaborating on subject matters or timing.

Laurie Shelby joined Tesla in 2017 from aluminum producer Alcoa. She played a role in the company’s push to resume production three years ago at its factory in Fremont, California, in defiance of a county shutdown order Musk described as fascist.