Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chairwoman, made 5 instances more cash than the subsequent best-paid board chair, a task Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk stated was ineffective.
In 2018, Musk settled with the SEC for falsely claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla non-public at $420 a share, he was pressured to resign as chair of Tesla’s board.
Musk mainly handpicked Robyn Denholm to grow to be the brand new chair, which he then referred to as a ineffective “honorific” titled:
“Chairman’ is an honorific, not government function, which implies it’s not wanted to run Tesla. Will retire that title at Tesla in 3 years.”
Denholm made some huge cash on this ineffective honorific function.
She has revamped $530 million, nearly completely by means of inventory choice compensation, since turning into Tesla’s chairperson.
Most of her inventory gross sales occurred over the past yr:
The New York Occasions launched a brand new report trying into Denholm’s compensation and located that she was paid about 5 instances greater than the subsequent best-paid nonexecutive chair.
Tesla paid its chair about 5 instances greater than UnitedHealth’s:
The nonexecutive chair with the next-highest revenue from promoting shares within the firm he oversees was Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group. Mr. Hemsley has earned greater than $100 million from the sale of UnitedHealth shares since November 2018, although he obtained all of that inventory whereas he was chief government of the well being care firm.
To Musk’s level concerning the function being honorific, it’s not clear what Denholm completed throughout her time as chair.
She and the remainder of Tesla’s board oversee Tesla’s government administration, led by Musk, however Musk has been allowed to do no matter he desires for years.
They’ve backed his each transfer, granted him a $55 billion CEO compensation package deal, and remained silent when he threatened Tesla shareholders that he wouldn’t develop AI merchandise at Tesla except given a bigger, extra controlling share of the corporate, or determined to hearth Tesla’s total charging crew to make an instance out of the pinnacle of the crew.
Most not too long ago, they haven’t addressed the protests at Tesla shops and product boycotts, that are attributed to Musk’s involvement in politics, angering a good portion of the inhabitants and Tesla’s client base.
Solely not too long ago was there a report suggesting the board floated the concept of changing Musk to realize leverage in forcing him to spend extra time at Tesla. Even then, the board rapidly denied the report, which solely claimed that they had been doing their jobs in planning the CEO succession.
Electrek’s Take
Based mostly on Musk’s remark, Denholm was paid half a billion {dollars} to do nothing. That’s actually all that was required of her after changing Musk as chair of the board: nothing.
Musk is in cost. She is simply an “honorific” figurehead that’s required to again his each transfer.
Simply as Tesla’s then-third-largest particular person shareholder, after Musk, Leo KoGuan, informed Electrek final yr, when he couldn’t get his considerations about Musk heard by the board, Tesla is “a household enterprise masquerading as a public firm.”
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