Tesla's 'Coinmaster' leaves unexpectedly with £130m fortune

The 39-year-old was named Chief Financial Officer in 2019. Photo: Tesla Inc.

Tesla's 39-year-old CFO. An employee left the company with a net worth of $170 million (£130 million) in just four years in office.

The electric car company announced on Monday that Zachary Kirkhorn has unexpectedly stepped down.

< p>In a LinkedIn post, the Harvard MBA alum thanked CEO Elon Musk for his «leadership and optimism that has inspired so many people.» He did not give a reason for his departure.

Mr. Kirkhorn leaves with $168 million worth of Tesla stock and options. He also earned $1.2 million in his four years in his current position.

Mr. Kirkhorn joined Tesla in 2010 at the age of 26 as a Financial Analyst formerly at McKinsey.

After a two-year sabbatical for an MBA from Harvard in 2011, he returned as a Senior Financial Analyst. manager, and in 2019, at the age of 34, he became chief financial officer.

0604 Tesla Boom

After his appointment, he was given the secondary title of «Coin Master», a reference to the TV series Game of Thrones. Mr. Musk at the same time called himself «Tesla's technologist».

Tech analyst Dan Ives said Mr. Kirkhorn was «a key part of this historic Tesla turnaround over the past five years.»

Mr. Musk acknowledged that his company was close to bankruptcy between 2017 and 2019, when Mr. Kirkhorn assumed the role of chief financial officer.

However, since then, Tesla's business has flourished thanks to the mitigation of production problems and the global transition to electric vehicles.

Over the past four years the company's share price is up 1480% and Tesla's market value briefly topped $1 trillion in 2021.

Mr Ives said Mr Kirkhorn's departure was a «blow in the short term» for Tesla, which today is worth $779 billion.

Tesla chief accountant Vaibhav Taneja has been appointed as the new chief financial officer. Mr. Taneja is the former vice president of Elon Musk's SolarCity solar cell division, which was acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2016.

Mr. Taneja is Tesla's fifth CFO in the past 10 years .