{"id":49845,"date":"2023-05-17T09:03:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T13:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=49845"},"modified":"2023-05-17T09:03:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T13:03:29","slug":"tesla-cfo-zachary-kirkhorn-quiet-leader-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=49845","title":{"rendered":"Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn’s Quiet Leadership Proves Huge Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article comes to us courtesy of\u00a0EVANNEX<\/a>, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at\u00a0InsideEVs<\/a>, nor have we been paid by\u00a0EVANNEX\u00a0to publish these articles. We find the company’s perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Posted on<\/span>\u00a0EVANNEX on May 15, 2023,\u00a0by<\/span>\u00a0Peter McGuthrie<\/p>\n

While many Tesla fans are familiar with CEO\u00a0Elon Musk\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0unique management style, there is another executive who has helped implement his vision and keep the company moving forward. Since 2019, scaling electric vehicle production from a financial standpoint has been the work of Tesla\u2019s Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Above: A Tesla service center (Image: Casey Murphy \/\u00a0EVANNEX<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

Kirkhorn has been Tesla<\/a>\u2019s CFO since 2019, and he has helped the company go from a valuation of roughly $50 billion when he started in the position to over $500 billion now, as\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reports. Others who have worked with Kirkhorn have pointed to his willingness to remain behind the scenes while quietly implementing Musk<\/a>\u2019s vision \u2013 both things that dozens of other executives have struggled to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t take the limelight from Elon,\u201d said Kurt Kelty, Tesla\u2019s former senior director of battery tech.<\/p>\n

WSJ\u00a0<\/em>likens Kirkhorn and Musk\u2019s relationship to that of Apple CEO Tim Cook and Steve Jobs. Both of the Tesla executives studied at the University of Pennsylvania with related and overlapping departments in the economics department.<\/p>\n

Kirkhorn manages many of Tesla\u2019s everyday tasks, and some have even discussed him being a potential successor to Musk. He has also played a crucial role in balancing expenses and keeping production costs down. Tesla\u2019s increased supply chain efficiency in the past few years is also one of Kirkhorn\u2019s many handiworks.<\/p>\n

In March, Kirkhorn was the master of ceremonies at Tesla\u2019s Investor Day. During his speech at Gigafactory Texas, he talked about the cut-throat nature of the auto industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this industry, in this business, you survive or you die based upon the ability to manage your costs,\u201d Kirkhorn said.<\/p>\n

Still, Kirkhorn has followed Musk\u2019s hyper-pursuit of ever-more-affordable EVs, as Tesla currently prepares to build its next generation of vehicles at an upcoming plant in Mexico. The mass-market vehicle is expected to be markedly cheaper, supporting Tesla\u2019s overall goal of helping the transportation sector shift to zero-tailpipe-emission technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we improve affordability, the number of customers who have access to our products dramatically increases,\u201d Kirkhorn added.<\/p>\n

Many say that part of Kirkhorn\u2019s expertise comes from his ability to unravel complex problems, and his skills in diplomatically critiquing and refining things he has trouble with. RJ Johnson, former head of Tesla\u2019s energy department, points to this very skill \u2013 and to how often Kirkhorn was right about things in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big risk or the issue you didn\u2019t want to talk about? He\u2019s going to find it and quickly dig into that thing,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe would almost scare people more because he was so often correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In any case, Kirkhorn remains an important part of Tesla\u2019s executive team, no matter how quietly he operates in comparison with Musk. And he knows that as EV affordability improves, Tesla will be able to invest in even\u00a0more\u00a0<\/em>EV volume, along with other financial endeavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cImproving affordability allows us to comfortably make investments that grow volume,\u201d Mr. Kirkhorn said at Investor\u2019s Day. \u201cWe\u2019re going to achieve unprecedented scale in the manufacturing space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

===<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article comes to us courtesy of\u00a0EVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at\u00a0InsideEVs, nor have we been paid by\u00a0EVANNEX\u00a0to publish these articles. We find the company’s perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}