Image: Steve Jurvetson

Tesla is asking shareholders to include its former chief technology officer, JB Straubel, on the board of directors. In addition, the company announced that it had appointed Tom Zhu as its senior vice president for automotive operations.

Tesla has released a note on the 2023 shareholder meeting to be held on May 16. In the document, Tesla called on shareholders to vote to include their former chief technology officer, JB Straubel, on the board. This will be part of a reorganization of the top management structure. Straubel will replace Hiromichi Mizuno, who will not seek re-election. The proposal is one of five items the company asked investors to vote on at its annual meeting.

Tesla’s board has eight members: Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk, Hiromichi Mizuno, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, James Murdoch, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.

By adding Strobel, Tesla can bolster its expertise in cleantech, the company says. Strobel, who is also one of Tesla's co-founders, left in 2019 to found Redwood Materials Inc., a Nevada-based battery recycling and supply chain company. His appointment to the board comes as Tesla seeks to make its own batteries and expands beyond cars by selling a growing number of energy storage systems to homeowners and utilities.

The company also announced that it had appointed Tom Zhu as its senior vice president of automotive operations. In early February, it became known that Tesla Global Vice President and General Manager for the Greater China, Region Zhu, had been appointed to oversee Tesla assembly plants in the US and sales operations in North America and Europe. At that time, his position as Vice President for Greater China remained unchanged.

© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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