Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Fortune
Fortune
Luisa Beltran

Who runs Tesla: The top power players at Elon Musk’s biggest company

(Credit: Ludovic Marin—AFP/Getty Images; Courtesy of Tesla)

Since taking control of Tesla in 2008, Musk has relied on several executives to help make it the biggest EV manufacturer in the world. One top Musk lieutenant is Omead Afshar, a former ski instructor who has worked for Tesla for more than six years and lists his most recent position as Office of the CEO. Afshar oversaw construction of Gigafactory Texas and moved to SpaceX in late 2022 where he's working on the Starship deep space rocket. Then there’s Andrew Baglino, a senior vice president for powertrain and energy engineering at Tesla, who is considered a top candidate to succeed Musk. (Baglino, who has spent nearly 18 years at Tesla, is also the company’s most senior engineer behind Musk.) Charles Kuehmann, the former director of product design at Apple, works for both Tesla and SpaceX where he is currently VP materials engineering. He is credited with helping develop the steel alloy used for Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck. Some of Musk’s closest advisors have left him but haven’t gone far. Consider JB Straubel, who was CTO of Tesla for nearly 16 years and is considered a cofounder. Straubel went on to launch Redwood Materials, which focuses on recycling lithium-ion batteries, but he also sits on Tesla’s board. Here's a look at the top executives running Tesla now.

Elon Musk

Tesla CEO, Technoking, and board member

Executives 

Tom Zhu

Senior vice president
Zhu was named senior vice president, automotive, in April 2023. He was previously vice president, Greater China. Frequently referred to as chief of Tesla China and the second most powerful person at Tesla.

Andrew Baglino

Senior vice president 
Powertrain and engineering 

Vaibhav Taneja 

CFO
Taneja was chief accounting officer when he was named CFO in August to replace Zachary Kirkhorn.

Nagesh Saldi

CIO

Omead Afshar 

Office of the CEO at Tesla
Top Musk lieutenant; was said to be working at SpaceX as VP of Starship production in late 2022.

Brandon Ehrhart

General counsel and corporate secretary

Karn Budhiraj  

Vice president, supply chain

Lars Moravy 

Head of vehicle engineering 
Considered a valued top executive.

Laurie Shelby

Vice president, environmental health, safety, and security

Charles Kuehmann

VP, materials engineering at SpaceX/Tesla Motors

Franz von Holzhausen 

Senior design executive

James Musk 

Part of Tesla autopilot; also Musk’s cousin. 

Tesla Board of Directors 

Elon Musk 

Robyn M. Denholm

Chairman of the board 
Former CFO and head of strategy at Telstra

Ira Ehrenpreis

Founder and managing partner of DBL Partners

Joe Gebbia 

Cofounder of Airbnb

James Murdoch 

CEO of Lupa Systems

Kimbal Musk

Brother; cofounder of Zip2, which he and Elon sold to Compaq.

JB Straubel

Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials; a Tesla cofounder who served as CTO from 2004 to July 2019.

Kathleen Wilson-Thompson

Former EVP and global chief human resources officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

See who runs Musk's other companies:

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.