Tesla hires Google's former VP
Ellon Musk's Tesla Motors Inc. announced that there will be a new Chief Financial Officer in the company as its current CFO, Deepak Ahuja will be retiring this year. According to the announcement, the new CFO is Jason Wheeler, a former CFO for Google.
The announcement was made by Ellon Musk himself during Tesla third-quarter earnings conference call according to the Business Insider. According to Musk, he considered Wheeler as the perfect guy for the job as he has been working with Google for a long time even during the early stage of Google's self-driving car.
Musk also said during the conference call that Wheeler is a "super smart guy" and sees him as someone that will be a perfect fit with the company's working culture.
Although Wheeler will be officially started working with Tesla on November 30, Musk said that Wheeler and current CFO, Ahuja will start working together on some important matter immediately. This is to make sure that the transition could be done smoothly.
Forbes reported that besides Tesla, there are other rumors circulating that Jason Wheeler will be hired as the new CFO for Google as the company's current CFO, Patrick Pichette had retired earlier this year leaving the position vacant. However, Google chooses to go with Ruth Porat, a former veteran at Morgan Stanley.
Jason Wheeler has been working with Google for over 13 years reported the MarketWatch, During his days there, he is responsible for Google's tax, accounting and financial planning.
On a related note, Tesla Motors third quarter revenue and profit is below analysts expectation causing the shares to be traded lower after the announcement.
The company reported a $1.24 billion in non-GAAP revenue, just $200 million shorts from the Wall Street expectation. However, the company overall performance is getting better as the revenue is 33 percent higher compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
Despite the earnings report, Musk managed to keep investors interested with the company with few good news and bright future prospect.
Tesla reported that it has delivered 11,602 vehicles in this quarter alone and is expected to deliver another 50,000 to 52,000 vehicle this year alone.
Besides that, Musk also announces that its Gigafactory construction, a lithium-ion battery factory specially for Tesla Motors is ahead of scheduled and will be open by the end of March 2016.
He also announces that the company's entry into China market is on the right track as it is expected that China will be the biggest customer outside the US.