Tesla Loses Global Sales Director as Executive Exodus Continues

Yet another Tesla executive has departed the company. This time Elon Musk’s global sales director, Dan Kim, has left to join Airbnb.

CNBC reports that Dan Kim, Tesla’s global sales director, has left the company to join Airbnb, adding to the growing list of Tesla executives that have abandoned the company. Kim joined Tesla in January where he operated as the company’s head of global sales, marketing, and delivery operations.

A Tesla insider told CNBC that Kim departed Tesla last month and his responsibilities at the company were being handled by others on his team. Kim worked as senior director in global sales and marketing under Tesla’s vice president of worldwide sales, Robin Ren. Before joining Tesla, Kim was a marketing executive at vehicle analytics firm Solera, before working there he founded the frozen yogurt store chain Red Mango.

In November, Tesla’s head of global security, Jeff Jones, left the electric-car manufacturer after only 11 months at the company. Jones was reportedly dismissed from the company in mid-November but the circumstances around his departure were not publicized with Jones only telling employees that his “position was no longer needed.”

Jones did not last a year with Tesla, which is not an entirely unusual situation. Former Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton lasted less than one month working at Tesla — he started working for Musk on August 6, 2018, and resigned on September 4.

Tesla has faced the departure of a number of top company executives over the course of 2018, the company’s former engineering leader Doug Field left after an extended “leave of absence” and went on to rejoin Apple’s autonomous driving project. Jon McNeill, the president of global sales and service, left Tesla in February after working at the company for two years, he later went on to join the ride-sharing company Lyft where he served as company CEO. Justin McAnear, the company’s vice president of worldwide finance and operations, also left the company stating that he had been given the chance to work as CFO of another firm and did not want to miss the opportunity.

According to a report from CNBC, Tesla has lost approximately 41 executives over the course of 2018 as of September.