Tesla's CFO is retiring — for the second time (TSLA)

January 31, 2019

Tesla's CFO is retiring — for the second time (TSLA)

elon musk

Tesla's chief financial officer announced his retirement on Wednesday.
The announcement came during Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts.
It's the second time Deepak Ahuja has retired.

Tesla's chief financial officer, Deepak Ahuja, will retire in the next few months.

The company made the announcement during the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call.

The new CFO will be Zach Kirkhorn, a nine-year veteran of Tesla who has been serving as Tesla's vice president of finance.

Ahuja had already retired once, in 2015. He was succeeded by Jason Wheeler, who came over from Google. Ahuja later returned to the company.

"There's no good time to make a change," Ahuja said. He cited Tesla's two consecutive quarters of profits as creating a "strong foundation" for the company.

Kirkhorn said he felt "really good" about taking over. Tesla CEO Elon Musk briefly chided Kirkhorn for his time at Harvard Business Review, saying that it wasn't necessary to get the CFO job.

Musk said Ahuja would stay on the job for several months to assist in the transition and be a senior adviser to Tesla "for years to come."

Ahuja said he had enjoyed his second stint as Tesla's CFO.

"I've been inspired by you," he told Musk. "And I've been inspired by the team."

This story is developing.

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