Elon Musk announces executive changes after bizarre Joe Rogan interview

Elon Musk at SpaceX Hyperloop Pod II competition in Hawthorne, CaliforniaReuters/Mike Blake

• Elon Musk announced a major shakeup in Tesla’s executive ranks on Friday, just hours after a bizarre interview left some investors rattled.
• In a Friday blog post on the electric-car company’s website, Musk announced Jerome Guillen, an eight-year veteran of the company, will now oversee all automotive operations, program management, and the company’s automotive supply chain.
• Kevin Kassekert and Felicia Mayo will lead the human-resources department, following the departure of former HR chief Gaby Toledano, who had been on leave since August.
• Chris Lister was promoted to VP of Gigafactory Operations and will be responsible for ramping up Model 3 production.
• Hours before the posting, Musk sat for a 2 1/2-hour interview with comedian Joe Rogan, during which the two mused about work and life while smoking a marijuana joint on camera.

Elon Musk announced some major executive changes at Tesla, shuffling in a new president to oversee automotive operations, a new Gigafactory vice president in charge of ramping up Model 3 production, and a new duo to lead Tesla’s human-resources division.

Musk posted the news on the company blog Friday:

• Jerome Guillen, an eight-year veteran of the company, will now oversee all automotive operations, program management, and the company’s automotive supply chain, and report directly to Musk.
• Chris Lister was promoted to VP of Gigafactory Operations and will be responsible for ramping up Model 3 production.
• Kevin Kassekert and Felicia Mayo will lead the human resources department, following the departure of former chief Gaby Toledano who had been on leave since August.

Securities and Exchange Commission filings released Friday revealed Tesla’s chief accountant, Dave Morton left the company just one month after he arrived, and Toledano’s departure, which was announced after she took leave from the company, comes after Ganesh Srivats, a top sales executive at the company, left under similar circumstances.

The promotions follow what have been a tumultuous few weeks for Musk, an increasingly mercurial chief executive who got himself into some hot water last month with a proposal to take Tesla private. That saga ended with a Friday night announcement in late August, in which Musk said Tesla would remain a publicly traded company.

Separately, Musk touted the company’s overall progress on Friday. “We’re about to have to most amazing quarter in our history, building and delivering more than twice as many cars as we did last quarter,” Musk wrote. Tesla delivered 40,740 vehicles worldwide in the second quarter — 18,440 of which were Model 3 sedans.

Musk shouted out the coming Model Y crossover, the Tesla pickup truck, Tesla Semi, and the second-generation Tesla Roadster as well, but warned that there would be “a lot of fuss and noise in the media” in the near term, seemingly an acknowledgement of the fallout from a 2 1/2-hour on-camera interview he participated in just hours earlier with comedy host Joe Rogan.

The Tesla CEO mused about life and work with Rogan over whiskey and a marijuana joint. The smoke session caught lots of attention on social media Thursday night, and rattled some Tesla investors early Friday morning.

One of those investors, Ross Gerber, told Business Insider’s Graham Rapier Musk has “lost a lot of confidence in some of his core investment community.”

“That’s what we’re seeing in the stock right now,” Gerber said. His firm, Gerber Kawasaki, owns about $10.5 million in Tesla stock.

Tesla shares fell as much as 10% on Friday, rebounding slightly to $265 per share in after hours trading.

Here’s a rundown of all the news on Tesla this week:

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