Tesla shares sharply after Musk says CFO Ahuja is leaving … again
Moving into the CFO role at the electric vehicle maker is Zach Kirkhorn, previously the company's vice president of finance. Ahuja said, "I really feel good about taking over. He's proven his self over the years with many tough challenges he's worked on."
Musk announced the change at the end of a conference call with analysts discussing the company's fourth- quarter earnings earnings
Kirkhorn said, "I've been deep in the operations of every major program of the company from Roadster to … scaling our energy business and more things to come. I feel we're starting 2019 with a very strong financial foundation. We have enough cash to start new programs and develop new technologies. " Prior to his joining Tesla in 201[ads1]0, Kirkhorn was a business analyst at McKinsey & Co.
Musk said Ahuja will "continue to be at Tesla for a few more months, and will continue to serve as a senior adviser to Tesla for years to come. "
Ahuja first joined Tesla as CFO at the worst possible time: July 2008. He was with the company when it went public in 2010.
Tesla's finance team has seen high turnover in the past year with one chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, spending less than a month at the company.
Other long-time veterans have been resigning from Tesla in the past six months, for example, Charles Mwangi, a senior director of engineering who had been with Tesla since 2012, and one of Tesla's first ever sales hires, Jeremy Snyder, who left his role as head of global business development in August, according to his LinkedIn profile.
