Elon Musk has elevated Omead Afshar, who labored in his workplace in what many noticed as a “chief of employees” place, to a prime govt function at Tesla after the younger engineer was reportedly in scorching water on the automaker.
This seems to be a part of a broader management shake-up at Tesla.
Afshar has had an fascinating profession trajectory.
Based on his LinkedIn profile, he studied biomedical engineering at UC Irvine and located himself working at medical tools producer St. Jude Medical from 2011 to 2017.
Then, he did a brief 7-month stint as “Supervisor, Excessive Voltage Operations and Operations Enterprise Methods” at healthcare big Abbott in Los Angeles earlier than discovering himself working within the “workplace of the CEO” beneath Elon Musk.
After Musk’s longtime chief of employees (formally the director of the workplace of the CEO), Sam Teller, left in 2019, Afshar was seen as taking up that function by many individuals working beneath Musk at his many corporations, however particularly Tesla, the place Afshar began to guide some initiatives.
For instance, Musk credited Afshar for main the development of Gigafactory Texas.
In 2022, Afshar reportedly obtained in scorching water at Tesla.
A report claimed that Afshar was about to be fired from Tesla over a curious controversy the place he allegedly positioned an order for a “particular glass” for a “secret venture,” which the automaker’s finance division flagged as suspicious – triggering an inner investigation.
The idea of the investigation was that an worker was utilizing firm assets to safe supplies for a venture that doubtlessly wasn’t associated to Tesla.
Based on the report, Tesla had already fired staff associated to the investigation, and Afshar was going to be subsequent.
The venture has been linked to the story that Musk was planning to construct himself a glass home close to Austin, which was confirmed in his biography by Walter Isaacson, however the venture by no means got here to be.
Tesla by no means disclosed what occurred with its inner investigation, nevertheless it was later reported that Musk moved Afshar to SpaceX for some time.
Now, he’s again at Tesla.
The Wall Avenue Journal experiences that Musk has made Afshar Vice President of operations in North America and Europe, the place he might be in command of gross sales and manufacturing.
This is able to make him one of many prime execs at Tesla. Tom Zhu, Tesla’s longtime head of operations in China, was given these tasks since final yr, and had unofficially turn into Musk’s “quantity 2” at Tesla, however we reported earlier this yr, that Zhu went again to guide operations in China.
Zhu continues to be one in all solely three executives listed by Tesla as the highest leaders on its web site, alongside Musk and CFO Vaibhav Taneja. We wouldn’t be stunned to see Afshar present up there quickly.
Afshar’s direct experiences reportedly embody Troy Jones, a 14-year veteran at Tesla and longtime chief of the North American gross sales and repair operations, and Jason Shawhan, the director of producing for Tesla at Giga Texas.
Bigger Management shake-up at Tesla
Tesla has misplaced lots of prime management over the past yr. Many had been half of a giant wave of layoffs earlier this yr and others left on their very own since.
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Electrek tracks hires and departures carefully at Tesla, and we haven’t seen lots of the formers at prime ranges these days, however that’s not solely uncommon, as Tesla likes to advertise inside.
Musk does like loyalty, and we now study that he has promoted a few of his prime lieutenants at Tesla past Afshar.
Ashok Elluswamy, the longtime head of software program for Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) packages, has been promoted to vice chairman of Autopilot and AI software program. Elluswamy has been at Tesla for a decade and he has been one of many prime figures in Tesla’s ADAS packages for the previous 5 years.
Milan Kovac, who has additionally held prime roles in Tesla’s autonomous driving packages, has been promoted to Vice President of Optimus, a program that he has been main for the previous two years.
Electrek’s Take
For higher or worse, Elon has made clear that self-driving and humanoid robots are the highest priorities at Tesla now. Subsequently, it is sensible that among the individuals main these packages at the moment are turning into the highest executives on the firm.
As for Afshar, that’s fairly an increase. His new function undoubtedly makes him one of many prime execs at Tesla, which is fascinating contemplating he was reportedly in scorching water at Tesla simply 2 years in the past. One would possibly even be forgiven for pondering that Musk may very well be grooming him to finally exchange him as CEO of Tesla, a task that he beforehand he didn’t need to maintain eternally.
Truthfully, my essential concern with Tesla’s management is much like my concern with Tesla’s board; they’re both too near Elon or too caught up in his cult of character.
However now that folks like Ashok are taking up larger management roles at Tesla, it might be fascinating to see in the event that they get a much bigger public voice. I’d wish to see Ashok, who’s engaged on FSD daily, give us timelines and information on what is occurring as a substitute of Elon.
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