Tesla's Kirkhorn officially takes over as CFO. Corporate Controller Taneja promoted to Chief Accounting Officer
Tesla made two senior appointments Wednesday, officially giving Zach Kirkhorn the job as CFO and promoting its Corporate Controller Vaibhav Taneja to Chief Accounting Officer.
Both moves, announced in a securities filing Thursday, solidify top leadership at a company that has seen a remarkable amount of turnover in its ranks.
Kirkhorn's promotion was announced in January when Deepak Ahuja, a long time Tesla executive, said he planned to retire. Ahuja had left the company in 2015 but in rejoined in 2017 to replace then-CFO Jason Wheeler.
Kirkhorn's pay package includes a stock option grant of $12 million and a restricted stock unit grant of $4 million, which will be granted and will vest over four years.
Taneja fills the gap created when former CAO Dave Morton left in September after just one month on the job. Morton had joined the company to replace Eric Branderiz, who left the company for "personal reasons" in March 2018. Ahuja and Taneja have shared Tesla's top accounting responsibilities since Branderiz's departure.
Taneja joined Tesla in 2017 following its acquisition of solar power company SolarCity, where he was Corporate Controller. Prior to that, Taneja worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and the U.S. from July 1999 to March 2016, finishing his tenure there as a a Senior Manager in its Assurance practice.
Taneja will receive a stock option grant of $6 million and a restricted stock unit grant of $2 million, which will also vest over four years.