Elon Musk has elevated Omead Afshar, who labored in his workplace in what many noticed as a “chief of workers” place, to a prime government position at Tesla after the younger engineer was reportedly in sizzling 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” underneath Elon Musk.
After Musk’s longtime chief of workers (formally the director of the workplace of the CEO), Sam Teller, left in 2019, Afshar was seen as taking on that position by many individuals working underneath Musk at his many corporations, however particularly Tesla, the place Afshar began to steer some tasks.
For instance, Musk credited Afshar for main the development of Gigafactory Texas.
In 2022, Afshar reportedly obtained in sizzling 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 challenge,” 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 challenge that doubtlessly wasn’t associated to Tesla.
Based on the report, Tesla had already fired workers associated to the investigation, and Afshar was going to be subsequent.
The challenge 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 challenge 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 Road Journal reviews that Musk has made Afshar Vice President of operations in North America and Europe, the place he will probably be accountable for gross sales and manufacturing.
This might 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 12 months, and had unofficially turn out to be Musk’s “quantity 2” at Tesla, however we reported earlier this 12 months, that Zhu went again to steer operations in China.
Zhu remains to be one in every of solely three executives listed by Tesla as the highest leaders on its web site, alongside Musk and CFO Vaibhav Taneja. We wouldn’t be shocked to see Afshar present up there quickly.
Afshar’s direct reviews 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 12 months. Many have been half of a big wave of layoffs earlier this 12 months and others left on their very own since.
https://twitter.com/FredericLambert/standing/1785753228103012454
Electrek tracks hires and departures carefully at Tesla, and we haven’t seen lots of the formers at prime ranges currently, however that’s not solely uncommon, as Tesla likes to advertise inside.
Musk does like loyalty, and we now be taught 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. Due to this fact, it is sensible that a few of the individuals main these packages are actually changing into the highest executives on the firm.
As for Afshar, that’s fairly an increase. His new position positively makes him one of many prime execs at Tesla, which is fascinating contemplating he was reportedly in sizzling water at Tesla simply 2 years in the past. One may even be forgiven for pondering that Musk may very well be grooming him to ultimately change him as CEO of Tesla, a job that he beforehand he didn’t wish to maintain ceaselessly.
Actually, my primary concern with Tesla’s management is just 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 greater management roles at Tesla, it will be fascinating to see in the event that they get an even bigger public voice. I’d wish to see Ashok, who’s engaged on FSD on daily basis, give us timelines and knowledge on what is occurring as an alternative of Elon.
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