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James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

reuters.com

51–60 of 91 posts

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murdoch and his family are poisonous, this won't help Tesla in the long run but might help.then with the SEC in the short run.

They're also brilliant businessmen who have built the most successful news empire in America

Maybe the father, the sons are not better than leeches.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#52
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how boards generally work. They're there for corporate governance and, in this case, to make sure the company is hiring the right people experienced in manufacturing and EVs... As an example, here is the board of directors for General Motors: https://www.gm.com/our-company/leadership/board-of-directors... Not exactly a lot of car building experience.

Looking at the GM board of directors, I see: - Former GM officials, - Ex-managers of defense companies. They build machines too, right. - Ex-joint chiefs of staff and business school head. They know management. - Insurance and such. GM has a large workforce and managing that a good portion of activity. Newscorp is a large organization too, but it seems more different from Tesla than the US Army, Cummins or even an in…

IMO it's all about the connections. Defense people are probably very well connected in Washington.

The Murdochs are scum, but hey, if you're a world leader and Rupert Murdoch calls, you pick up the phone. Tony Blair only became PM because he sucked up to Murdoch to gain his papers' endorsement.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#53

Sorry, we live in a world where News Corp has been at the epicenter of cultivating "Merchants of Doubt"[1] when it comes to anthropogenic climate change. Anyone tied up in that universe deserves skepticism if not outright rejection for the unbelievable damage they have wielded on society's ability to address climate change. The cost to society is enormous, and their grandchildren and grandchildren's children will pay…

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche.

I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', especially with Musk's backward - even reactionary - views on public transport.[1] It hadn't occurred to me that this might not be mainstream thought.

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t...

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#54
post #53

Sorry, we live in a world where News Corp has been at the epicenter of cultivating "Merchants of Doubt"[1] when it comes to anthropogenic climate change. Anyone tied up in that universe deserves skepticism if not outright rejection for the unbelievable damage they have wielded on society's ability to address climate change. The cost to society is enormous, and their grandchildren and grandchildren's children will pay…

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

There is no getting rid of cars for the foreseeable future, making them electric is the obvious next step for reducing their environmental impact

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#55
post #34
post #7

From the article: The son of Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch, he joined Tesla’s board in July 2017 after years of work with media companies. He has no experience in manufacturing and has never led a company that makes cars or electric vehicles. What exactly does this guy bring to the table for Tesla? Money? Connections?

I assume "will do whatever Elon says" was the top requirement.

To be fair he's used to doing that from his father.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#56
post #53

Sorry, we live in a world where News Corp has been at the epicenter of cultivating "Merchants of Doubt"[1] when it comes to anthropogenic climate change. Anyone tied up in that universe deserves skepticism if not outright rejection for the unbelievable damage they have wielded on society's ability to address climate change. The cost to society is enormous, and their grandchildren and grandchildren's children will pay…

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

The United States, Canada and others are too sprawling and sparse for that. Cars are going to be a fact of life for a very long time yet.

As far as helping to solve climate change, cars are part of it, but I wish people paid much more attention to the larger contributor: Agriculture.

I often get the feeling that people think changing cars to electric will solve the problem. It's important and helps, but it's just one piece of the pie. Not the biggest piece of it either.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#57
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

There is no getting rid of cars for the foreseeable future, making them electric is the obvious next step for reducing their environmental impact

If we can't get rid of cars I'm really not sure there is a future.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I just saw this. I hope it's true. I remember seeing an interview about 5 years ago that featured both Elon Musk and Bob Lutz, vice chairman of GM. In the interview, Musk was incredibly deferential to Lutz and talked about his respect for Lutz and considered him a friend. They were very cordial. Nevertheless, Lutz has been on the record for many, many years as lambasting Tesla, it ambitious and sustainable aims,…

Boxers can admire each other and still bash each other's brains out. Lutz lambasts Tesla because he's on the other side of the ring; Murdoch isn't.

I should add: Lutz is a climate change denier. [1] He has spent a lot of energy sowing skepticism towards the IPCC and anthropogenic climate change, calling it a "crock of shit." His antagonism towards Tesla goes deeper than just that of business competitors.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klgp_qDiRhQ

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#59
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

The United States, Canada and others are too sprawling and sparse for that. Cars are going to be a fact of life for a very long time yet. As far as helping to solve climate change, cars are part of it, but I wish people paid much more attention to the larger contributor: Agriculture. I often get the feeling that people think changing cars to electric will solve the problem. It's important and helps, but it's just one…

Europe is also large, and there is much better public transportation. If the US really wanted to replace cars, the US could replace cars. The problem is we equate cars with 'freedom', so we are doomed to live forever in the past until that changes (or we destroy ourselves)

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#60
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how boards generally work. They're there for corporate governance and, in this case, to make sure the company is hiring the right people experienced in manufacturing and EVs... As an example, here is the board of directors for General Motors: https://www.gm.com/our-company/leadership/board-of-directors... Not exactly a lot of car building experience.

Looking at the GM board of directors, I see: - Former GM officials, - Ex-managers of defense companies. They build machines too, right. - Ex-joint chiefs of staff and business school head. They know management. - Insurance and such. GM has a large workforce and managing that a good portion of activity. Newscorp is a large organization too, but it seems more different from Tesla than the US Army, Cummins or even an in…

That's not a fair interpretation. Let's actually break it down...

- Current CEO of GM

- Former Lockheed-associated Director was VP in charge of Information Systems. Assuming that's deliverable product and not internal IT (which she also ran), not exactly making the planes

- The former CEO of a drug manufacturer

- The former CEO of Harvard Management Company (the endowment)

- Retired Chairman of Joint Chiefs

- Retired CEO of a big oil company

- The Chairman of HP

- Former CFO of Wal-Mart

- Former CEO of Cummins (MOST adjacent business to GM vis engine mfg)

- Former Dean of Ivey Business School, The University of Western Ontario

- The CEO of eBay

So, sure, we can reach and say that some of the individuals have tangential industry experience or we can say that they are on the board because they have high degrees of personal/economic success, presumably large rolodexes, and various levels of experience at the top of large organizations.

I'm not taking a position on James Murdoch at all here, just pointing out that board members are not often subject matter experts of what a company produces so much as generally successful and influential people with various levels of business and leadership experience.

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