Tesla names Indian American Vaibhav Taneja as CFO
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Arun Kumar- 0
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Vaibhav Taneja
Elon Musk-led US electric vehicle major Tesla has named Indian American executive Vaibhav Taneja as its new Chief Financial Officer to succeed Zachary Kirkhorn, who is stepping down after working for the company for 13 years.
Taneja, 45, was appointed Tesla CFO in addition to his current role as Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) on Friday after Kirhorn, Tesla’s Master of Coin and finance chief for the last four years, stepped down from the post.
Taneja became Tesla’s corporate controller in May 2018 and was named chief accounting officer in March 2019.
He served as the assistant corporate controller between February 2017 and May 2018, and from March 2016, served in various finance and accounting roles at SolarCity Corporation, a US-based solar panel developer acquired by Tesla in 2016.
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Before that, Taneja was employed at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and the US between July 1999 and March 2016, according to a company filing.
Taneja started his career in New Delhi. He graduated in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi University, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He then spent almost 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tesla’s longtime accounting firm.
Taneja’s predecessor, Dave Morton, had been hired away from Seagate Technology but resigned after less than a month.
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Taneja owned about 105,000 shares of the company as of July 7, a stake that is currently valued at about $26 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Musk, the richest person in the world, oversees six companies: Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly known as Twitter), Boring, Neuralink, and xAI, his most recent venture.
The EV maker has just four executive officers: Musk, Drew Baglino, the senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering; Tom Zhu, senior vice president of automotive; and now Taneja, Bloomberg noted.