Tesla’s chief financial officer, and one of Elon Musk’s closest lieutenants, Zach Kirkhorn, stepped down from his position effective Friday. The automaker announced Monday morning in a regulatory filing. Tesla’s chief accounting officer, Vaibhav Taneja, was appointed as the new CFO and will hold both roles concurrently.
Shares of Tesla dipped nearly 3% after the news, but recovered to close down a little less than 1% on the day. Kirkhorn will stay on with Tesla through the end of the year to assist in the transition, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Kirkhorn had served as CFO since March 2019 and had worked for Tesla since 2010.
Zach Kirkhorn wrote on LinkedIn:
As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought not possible.
Kirkhorn’s departure marks the second CFO replacement at Tesla in just over four years. When prior finance chief Deepak Ahuja left Tesla in 2019, the company’s shares dipped as much as 4.5%.
Taneja, Kirkhorn’s successor, and Tesla’s chief accounting officer, has been with the automaker since 2017. He worked for SolarCity before joining Tesla, by way of the automaker’s $2.6 billion acquisition of the solar installer. Before that, Taneja was employed at PwC for about 17 years. PwC is Tesla’s auditor.
