Two More Tesla Execs Abandon Elon Musk, Bringing 2018 Total to 100+

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Tesla’s Director of Investor Relations Aaron Chew has left the firm along with Gigafactory Vice President Jens Peter Clausen, marking over 100 executives that have abandoned the electric-car manufacturer this year.

Business Insider reports that Tesla’s Director of Investor Relations, Aaron Chew, has departed the company meaning over 100 executives have left Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer this year alone. Chew joined Tesla in 2016 shortly after the firm acquired the company Solar City where Chew reported to the head of investor relations Martin Viecha. Chew previously worked as a research analyst on Wall Street, briefly working for both Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan.

CNBC reports that the Vice President of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1, Jens Peter Clausen, has left the factory to join the startup company Zymergen, a synthetic biology company that’s funded by the Chinese venture capital and private equity firm Softbank. Clausen will reportedly help Zymergen to scale its manufacturing teams, processes, and facilities, an area he would have great experience in having run Elon Musk’s Gigafactory. Zymergen CEO Joshua Hoffman told CNBC that the company was experiencing growth: “at a pace that I’m not sure has been seen in life sciences.”

These latest departures from the electric car-manufacturer mark over 100 executives leaving the company in 2018, as was noted by some users on Twitter, who track departures from Elon Musk’s troubled firm:

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.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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