New job title for Tesla boss: Musk is now Tesla's "technoking"

Tuesday March 16, 2021

New job title for Tesla boss
Musk is now Tesla's technoking

Elon Musk is rarely at a loss for a joke. Compared to the US stock exchange regulator, the Tesla boss now gives a strange job title. His CFO has also been given a new name.

The Tesla boss Elon Musk, known for his antics, has gained a royal title in the internal hierarchy of the electric car manufacturer. Musk is now the "Technoking of Tesla", the company reported on Monday in a mandatory notification to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

CFO Zack Kirkhorn will now carry the title "Master of Coin", it said. This can be an allusion to Tesla's recent deals with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – at the same time the treasurer in the series "Game of Thrones" called himself that, who ensured that the king did not run out of money. Musk and Kirkhorn retained their positions as group and finance directors, and restricted Tesla.

In addition to the two fun titles, Tesla also announced an important, serious change in the executive suite. Jerome Guillen, who most recently had responsibility for Tesla's automotive division, took over the lead in the heavy truck business. The former Daimler manager Guillen had already worked on Tesla's electric semi-trailer truck in the past, the production of which is currently being prepared.

The truck with the designation Tesla Semi was presented in 2017 and production should actually start in 2020. But Musk said when the latest quarterly figures were presented at the end of January that Tesla was not producing enough battery cells for them. The semi-trailer typically needs five times more battery cells than a Tesla car – but doesn't bring in five times more money.

The 49-year-old Musk repeatedly causes a stir with his tweets and sometimes also for strong movements in the financial markets. In May 2020, for example, Musk dropped Tesla's share price by more than ten percent in a single trading day with a series of weird tweets.

At the time, he wrote, among other things, that he thought the price of Tesla shares was too high and announced that he wanted to part with almost all physical possessions. Musk later emphasized that, despite the high price level, he believed that Tesla could be worth more in five years than it is now.