Meet Tesla’s new CFO, young enough to be a youth league member
Zach Kirkhorn will rank among the youngest CFOs at major US firms, but has a few years on David Knopf, who took over the role for Kraft Heinz at 29
San Francisco — Zach Kirkhorn landed his first job out of school with McKinsey and joined Tesla while still in his mid-20s. He’s now about to take over a finance department that’s been through months of tumult. Kirkhorn, 34, will become chief financial officer of the electric-car maker after a few months more grooming by his predecessor, Deepak Ahuja. CEO Elon Musk revealed the shake-up in the closing minutes of Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday, and the surprise announcement sent the shares tumbling as much as 5.9%. Tesla saw a wave of executive departures in 2018 that hit the finance team particularly hard. Chief accounting officer Dave Morton resigned in September after less than a month. Justin McAnear, vice president of worldwide finance, left in October. Ahuja retired in 2015 but returned in 2017 when his successor, Jason Wheeler, announced he’d quit after just 15 months. He plans to go back into retirement after a few months and continue to serve as a senior adviser, probabl...
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