After a string of executive departures over the past several months that continued Friday with the resignations of two people in high-profile positions, CEO Elon Musk announced a series of promotions and job updates in an email sent to employees. To be clear, these are not new hires and some of these promotions were already finalized before the most recent resignations reported earlier Friday.
In other words, Musk didn’t suddenly promote a bunch of executives in response to the negative market reaction Friday to the resignations or his marijuana-sampling during a live-streamed podcast with Joe Rogan.
Still, the promotions are notable because it gives rarely provided insight into the structure of the company — as well as who is left. It also shows the increasing workload placed on a few people.
For example, Kevin Kassekert previously headed up infrastructure development, a job that included leading the construction and development of Tesla’s gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. His new title is vice president of people and places, a position that gives him responsibility of human resources — a job that was once filled by Gaby Toledano — as well as facilities, construction and infrastructure. Tesla has more than 37,000 employees and facilities all over the world, including its factory in Fremont, California.
Musk also promoted Jérôme Guillen to president of automotive. Guillen, a former Daimler Freightliner executive, will oversee all automotive operations and program management, as well as coordinate Tesla’s supply chain. Guillen previously headed up Tesla’s truck program and worldwide sales and service.
Other promotions and position updates include:
- Felicia Mayo, who was senior HR director and head of Tesla’s diversity and inclusion program, has been promoted to vice president level and will report to both Kassekert and Musk.
- Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s vice president of environmental, health and safety will now report directly to Musk.
- Cindy Nicola, who heads global recruiting at Tesla, will report to both Kassekert and Musk.
- Dave Arnold has been promoted to head of communications. Arnold fills the role after Sarah O’Brien left this month.
The letter contained a few other forward-looking statements ahead of the company’s next quarterly earnings report.
“We are about to have the most amazing quarter in our history, building and delivering more than twice as many cars as we did last quarter,” Musk wrote. “For a while, there will be a lot of fuss and noise in the media. Just ignore them. Results are what matter and we are creating the most mind-blowing growth in the history of the automotive industry.”
Tesla produced 53,339 vehicles in the second quarter. If Tesla does build and deliver more than “twice” as many as cars as it did last quarter, that means the company would hit something like 107,000 vehicles.