Tesla VP of Global Recruiting Joins Executive Exodus

Yet another Tesla executive has abandoned the company, this time the company’s Vice President of Global Recruiting, Cindy Nicola, who is leaving Elon Musk’s car company in the midst of its expansion into Europe and China.

Business Insider reports that Tesla’s Vice President of Global Recruiting, Cindy Nicola, is set to leave the company according to company sources. Tesla confirmed to Business Insider that this week will be Nicola’s last at the company but did not confirm who will be filling her position; the recruiting department will continue to report to Kevin Kassekert, the company’s vice president of people and places.

Nicola spoke to Business Insider about her departure stating: “I’ve loved every minute of my nearly four years at Tesla, including working side by side with such an amazing team on the most important mission of my lifetime. After 30 years in the talent and tech space, I’m looking forward to traveling the world with my husband and will continue to support the mission and root for Tesla from the sidelines.” Nicola has worked for Tesla since May 2015, and was previously by both Apple and Electronic Arts.

Breitbart reported in January that following the announcement of Tesla’s less-than-stellar fourth-quarter earnings report, the company’s CFO, Deepak Ahuja, resigned. Although this news was not shared by Tesla in its shareholders’ letter, combined with the news of Tesla’s poor earnings report, the market took Ahuja’s departure as bad news. Zach Kirkhorn is replacing Ahuja as CFO.  Kirkhorn was promoted to the position of Vice President of Finance in December. Kirkhorn has no experience acting in the role of CFO and reportedly no direct accounting experience, but has been at Tesla for some time working within the finance department.

In November, Tesla’s head of global security, Jeff Jones, left the electric-car manufacturer after only 11 months at the company. Jones was reportedly dismissed from the company in mid-November but the circumstances around his departure were not publicized with Jones only telling employees that his “position was no longer needed.”

Jones did not last a year with Tesla, which is not an entirely unusual situation. Former Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton lasted less than one month working at Tesla — he started working for Musk on August 6, 2018, and resigned on September 4.

Tesla has faced the departure of a number of top company executives over the course of 2018, the company’s former engineering leader Doug Field left after an extended “leave of absence” and went on to rejoin Apple’s autonomous driving project. Jon McNeill, the president of global sales and service, left Tesla in February after working at the company for two years, he later went on to join the ride-sharing company Lyft where he served as company CEO. Justin McAnear, the company’s vice president of worldwide finance and operations, also left the company stating that he had been given the chance to work as CFO of another firm and did not want to miss the opportunity.