A group of progressive Tesla shareholders has written a letter to the company’s board of directors expressing concern that CEO Elon Musk is not devoting enough attention to Tesla’s issues. The group, which includes Amalgamated Bank, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, United Church Funds, Investor Advocates for Social Justice, and the New York City Controller’s Office, claims to own $1.5 billion worth of Tesla shares.
They say that they initially invested in Tesla because they believed it was a leader in producing sustainable and green products, but they have become increasingly concerned about governance and leadership issues at the company. The group is asking the board to make Musk focus more on running Tesla, as they believe he is currently spread too thin across his other ventures, including Twitter, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Neuralink.
The letter from progressive Tesla shareholders accuses CEO Elon Musk of not devoting enough attention to Tesla’s issues, leading to problems such as high staff turnover due to a toxic work environment. The letter does not offer a solution to the problem of Musk’s lack of focus. The group, which owns $1.5 billion worth of Tesla shares, is calling for a board that will ensure the CEO is focused on addressing the company’s challenges.
The group is not advocating for Musk to be replaced as CEO, but they are concerned that he is becoming too distracted with his ownership and running of multiple companies, including his recent purchase of Twitter. Musk owns or has options to purchase $118 billion worth of Tesla shares, representing 20% of the stock, and has a net worth of $175 billion.We’re a Tesla investor,” he said. “In terms of governance, we’d like the board room to become less clubby and more independent and responsive to investors.”
Elon Musk is currently working for Tesla without a cash salary and has received his final block of stock options from a 2018 pay package earlier this year. He is not eligible for any additional stock options at the moment. Some analysts have suggested that Tesla should offer a new pay package to Musk to demonstrate that the company is still his priority despite his other CEO jobs. However, Ivan Frishberg, chief sustainability officer at Amalgamated Bank, disagrees with this idea, saying that he does not believe offering more money to Musk is the solution to the problem.
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