Tesla’s (TSLA) Chief Accountant Officer Dave Morton resigned within less than 40 days of his appointment. The former Seagate Technology (STX) chief financial officer was appointed as CAO on July 30. According to CNBC, Tesla’s Chief People Officer Gaby Toledano also left the company following an extended leave of absence. The stock was down about 8% in the pre-market trading.
Tesla filed an 8-K with SEC on Friday stating that on September 4, Dave Morton had provided a notice that he was quitting from the company with an immediate effect.
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Dave stated, “Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.”
Tesla confirmed a week ago that its HR head Gaby Toledano, who was appointed in May 2017, was on leave and did not confirm when she will return to the work. Gaby had previously served on various HR leadership positions in Electronic Arts (EA), Siebel Systems, Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL).
Tesla has been losing its top executives at regular intervals. In March, Tesla revealed in an SEC filing that then CAO Eric Branderiz has quit the company for personal reasons. It’s worth noting Doug Field, SVP of Engineering, quit the company in July. Jon McNeil, President of sales and service quit his post in February and Ganesh Srivats, the head of North America sales left the company in July this year.
In the SEC filing, Tesla added that its accounting and personnel functions will be managed by both Tesla’s CFO Deepak Ahuja and its Corporate Controller.
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