Tesla nominates co-founder JB Straubel to board

By Hyunjoo Jin and Nivedita Balu

(Reuters) -Tesla Inc on Thursday nominated co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel to the board amid concern among some investors that the electric carmaker led by Chief Executive Elon Musk lacks succession planning.

Tesla also named Tom Zhu, 43, as senior vice president for automotive operations, making him one of the four executive officers at Tesla, along with Musk, chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn and powertrain head Andrew Baglino.

The appointments come as Tesla investors worry 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 worst 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 carmakers relies too heavily on Musk’s leadership. The proposal seeks to identify “key persons and actions to ameliorate the impacts of their potential loss.”

The board recommends voting against the report.

“Adopting this proposal would cause unnecessary competitive harm to Tesla and undermine our efforts to recruit and retain management,” the board said in its opposing statement.

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.

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.

The understated Straubel had been seen as a good partner for showy Musk, before stepping down in 2019. Straubel has since founded Redwood Materials Inc, a battery recycling company.

On Thursday, Tesla also nominated Musk and board chair Robyn Denholm to be reelected as board directors.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Nivedita Balu and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Stephen Coates)