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James Murdoch Tipped to Lead Tesla Board

posted by Fnord666 on Friday October 12 2018, @01:45PM   
from the tipped-20% dept.

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

James Murdoch could become the next head of Tesla's board of directors. He is "the favourite" to replace Elon Musk, who currently serves as both board chairman and chief executive, the Financial Times has reported. However, Mr Musk said on Twitter that the FT report was "incorrect" without providing any further detail.

Mr Musk agreed to give up the chairmanship last month to resolve claims of fraud brought by US financial regulators. The settlement requires Tesla to install an independent chairman, among other penalties. It is intended to create more oversight of Mr Musk, who provoked the charges when he claimed on Twitter that he had secured funding and might take the firm private.

The terms of the settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission are awaiting court approval. A federal judge is due to review the settlement on Thursday. The FT report cited two anonymous sources, but added that other names remain under consideration.

[...] Mr Murdoch is currently chief executive of the US media giant 21st Century Fox, but he will step down after the firm completes the sale of much of its business to Walt Disney. He resigned from the board of Sky this week, following Comcast's successful bid for the European satellite broadcaster.

-- submitted from IRC

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Original Submission

• Re:short list (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @03:33PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @03:33PM (#747935)

  Replying to my own AC comment, probably don't want Johan de Nysschen although he is available. He's the ex-Audi guy who was hired to run Cadillac...and decided to move the Cadillac headquarters to NY City a few years ago. It turned out to be a disaster and it was recently announced that Cadillac is moving back to Warren MI (northern Detroit suburbs).

  Here's a real possibility, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fields_(businessman) [wikipedia.org] Mark Fields did a good job at Ford until the Ford Family (who still have major stock holdings) decided that he wasn't doing enough "high tech". At Tesla, arguably they have plenty of high tech already in house, and need someone that knows about getting cars made and delivered. According to Wiki, he's moved to a "private equity firm" in the last year, so he also tics the vulture capitalist box,

  Fields was recruited by Ford in 1989 and moved up the ranks. He ran Ford's Argentina operations at the age of 36.[7] He then went to Japan to run marketing and sales for Mazda Motor Corporation (then owned by Ford) and was named president and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation in 2000, at age 38. In 2002, Fields became chairman of the Premier Automotive Group, Ford's luxury unit, which at the time included Lincoln, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo Cars. He then was named executive vice president, Ford of Europe and Premier Automotive Group, where he led all activities for Ford's premium vehicle business group and for Ford brand vehicles manufactured and sold in European countries. In 2005, he returned to the United States to head the Americas division of the company. In this role, he developed the "Way Forward" plan, which was designed to make Ford's North American operations leaner and more centrally driven in areas such as product development, purchasing and engineering.

  In December 2012, Ford appointed Fields its chief operating officer.[9] He was named president and CEO of Ford effective July 1, 2014, succeeding Alan Mulally.[10][11]

  In the midst of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election campaign, Fields announced a plan to move production of the Ford Focus from Michigan to San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Donald Trump used this proposed move as an example of how the North American Free Trade Agreement was bad for American workers. Before Trump took office, Fields announced the cancellation of a $1.6 billion investment for a new factory in Mexico. This incident is reported to have undermined Ford's board of directors' confidence in Fields.[12] Despite strong SUV and pickup truck sales, investors lacked confidence in Ford's future direction. Although U.S. stock market indexes rose sharply during Fields' tenure as CEO from July 2014 to May 2017, Ford’s stock price fell more than 35 percent in that period.[13]

  On May 22, 2017, Fields was replaced by James Hackett.[14] Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said he wanted Hackett to speed up decision-making and cut costs. "The clock speed at which our competitors are working …requires us to make decisions at a faster pace," said the Ford chairman.[15]

  Fields became a senior adviser at private equity firm TPG Capital in October 2017.

  He must be good at talking to rich owners, since he survived with the Ford Family for so long...

  Parent

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