By Hyunjoo Jin and Nivedita Balu
(Reuters) -Tesla Inc on Thursday nominated co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel to the board at a time when some investors have expressed concern about a lack of succession planning at the electric carmaker led by Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) also named Tom Zhu, who led construction and operations of Tesla's Shanghai factory, as senior vice president for automotive operations. This makes him one of the four executive officers at Tesla, along with Musk, Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn and powertrain head Andrew Baglino.
Some Tesla investors have expressed concern that Musk's acquisition and leadership of Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion last year, could stretch the billionaire thin and distract him from running the carmaker.
Tesla shares posted their steepest annual drop last year, hit by concerns about Musk's attention to Twitter and softening demand for electric vehicles in China, the United States and elsewhere.
Tesla shareholders are set to vote on May 16 on an investor proposal for the company to publish a report on "Key-Person Risk", reflecting concerns that the carmaker relies too heavily on Musk's leadership. The proposal seeks to identify key persons, succession processes and other "actions to ameliorate the impacts of their potential loss."
The board recommends voting against the report, saying the proposal "would cause unnecessary competitive harm to Tesla."
James Murdoch, a Tesla director, testified in court in November that Musk had in the last few months identified someone as a potential successor to head the electric carmaker, without naming the potential successor.
UNDERSTATED
If elected at the annual meeting on May 16, Straubel would succeed Hiromichi Mizuno, who will not stand for re-election.
Straubel joined Tesla in 2004 and spent 14 years as the chief technology officer. He has been credited with Tesla's battery cell design and also led the construction and concept of Gigafactory Nevada and the production of Model 3.
Tasked with Tesla’s groundbreaking battery technology since Tesla’s early beginnings, Straubel directed development of the plan to make sleek electric cars powered by bundled laptop batteries.
The understated Straubel had been seen as a good partner for showy Musk, before stepping down in 2019 when the automaker was grappling with losses. Straubel has since founded Redwood (NYSE:RWT) Materials Inc, a battery recycling company.
On Thursday, Tesla also nominated Musk and board chair Robyn Denholm to be reelected as directors to the eight-member board.