Elon Musk’s Surprise Pick for Tesla CFO Is a Relative Unknown

Post by hopler » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 12:02 AM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #54

kgwgk wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/IsFunkyMonkey/status/1090778355664805891 “To be fair, finance positions typically are the hardest to fill. With it being a new science, the lack of codified rules/schools, & the propensity for finance people to want to spend time with their families at every waking moment. Tesla's doing better than usual w/ retention.”

This is a joke, right? It's hard to tell because online Musk fans often give off the air of a new cult member, where everything the leader says is true, and any criticism is false. Finance is a 'new science'? Maybe if you're building trading algorithms, but that's not what a CFO does. And the thing about not wanting to work long hours is ridiculous when that's what every CPA is doing during tax, audit and earnings se…

Post by hopler » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 12:07 AM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #59

ecpottinger wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the claim is age means he can not be good, then when shown example of young CFO you claim cherry picking, but leave out the possibility that he could also be of the same caliber.

I'm not saying that his age means he can't be good -- David Knopf is the perfect example of a qualified young CFO. But David Knopf is also the exception that proves the rule--before becoming CFO, he spent almost a decade earning experience doing exactly the kinds of things the CFO of a publicly traded company would do. Similarly, with the other examples cited, they all had direct experience doing the things that the…

Post by BurningFrog » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 2:49 AM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #14

skh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is noteworthy given the notoriety of Musk and the high pressure situation being CFO of a company whose CEO makes numerous unsubstantiated claims. If I were an investor in TSLA this would not be welcome news to me. Is this person, relatively young for CFO, in a position to stand up to Musk? Is this person going to be just a yes man so to speak?

> Is this person, relatively young for CFO, in a position to stand up to Musk? Maybe not, but is that even the job of a CFO? The CFO works for the CEO, right?

Post by synaesthesisx » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 6:23 AM UTC

dralley wrote: post #66

travisoneill1 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If SpaceX doesn't count as a success, I, and everyone I have ever met is a complete failure. Success does not mean perfection.

Who deserves more credit for SpaceX's current success, Musk or Gwynne Shotwell? This is a serious question.

Post by ameister14 » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 4:33 AM UTC

hopler wrote: post #62

ameister14 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, you're right - average age of a S&P 500 CFO in 2012 was 42, seems to have gone up a bit since. Just saying, not a toddler.

The average CFO of a Fortune 500 or S&P 500 company is 52.