Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building on January 24, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Tesla chief financial officer and key Elon Musk lieutenant Zach Kirkhorn stepped down from his position, effective Aug. 4, the automaker announced Monday morning. Tesla’s chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja was appointed as the new CFO.
Shares of Tesla are down about 1%.
Kirkhorn will stay on with Tesla through the end of the year to assist in the transition, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Kirkhorn had served as CFO since 2019 and had been with Tesla since 2010.
“As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought not possible,” Kirkhorn wrote on LinkedIn.
Kirkhorn’s departure will trigger the second CFO replacement at Tesla in four years. When CFO Deepak Ahuja left Tesla in 2019, it sent shares down as much as 4.5%.
Taneja, 45, is a certified public accountant and has been with Tesla since 2017. He worked for Musk-funded SolarCity before joining Tesla.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.