Elon Musk has been CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA for 15 eventful years.
The Offer In 2008: Tesla offered the billionaire the CEO position on Oct. 13, 2008, during the Global Financial Crisis between mid-2007 and early 2009. The offer then was for a salary of $33,280 per year. Elon accepted the offer to be the CEO of what is now the biggest player in the EV industry.
Though Musk has been the company’s CEO only since Oct. 15, 2008, replacing Ze'ev Drori, he has been on the company’s board since April 2004. He continues to be on the board with Robyn M Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, James Murdoch, Kimbal Musk, JB Straubel, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.
Years Since: On appointment, Musk said in a blog that the company would focus on its Roadster and powertrain sales alone and delay the production of the Model S to mid-2011. The company is at a "critical phase," he then said.
Since then, the CEO has witnessed the company’s listing in 2010, its first profit in 2020, and an expanding lineup from the original roadster to Model S, 3, X, Y, the Tesla semi, and now its upcoming Cybertruck, Tesla is also presently the largest automaker by market cap at $807.669 billion.
From CEO To Technoking: In March 2021, however, the company said in a filing that Musk had changed his title to ‘Technoking of Tesla’ and CFO Zach Kirkhorn to ‘Master of Coin.’ The CEO later clarified that he meant the change in title as a joke, as the title did not mean much.
Musk As Buffett Of The Auto Industry: Musk is currently the longest-serving CEO of a major automaker company. He is yet to beat Warren Buffett as the longest-serving active CEO of a public company traded in the U.S. as Buffett has been CEO of Berkshire Hathaway for over 50 years now.
Musk is also presently CEO of Neuralink and SpaceX.
Stock Performance: Tesla went public on June 29, 2010, at $17 per share. However, since then, the company has gone through two stock splits, meaning its split-adjusted IPO price was about $1 per share. Since listing, shares have jumped a whopping 19,780.08% to close at $254.46 on Friday.
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