Shares of Tesla (TSLA) dropped in early trading after the company’s chief accounting officer resigned after just a month in his role. News of Morton’s departure follows CEO Elon Musk’s “marijuana and whiskey” podcast interview with Joe Rogan and comes a day after Citron Research’s Andrew Left filed a suit against Tesla and Musk on behalf of fellow short-sellers.
MORTON RESIGNS: In a regulatory filing on Friday morning, Dave Morton, who was named Tesla’s chief accounting officer on July 30, said that on September 4 he had resigned, effective immediately. Morton said he resigned because of “the level of public attention placed on the company”. In the filing, Morton added that “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’s accounting functions and personnel will continue to be overseen by both Tesla’s CFO and its corporate controller.
GABRIELLE TOLEDANO: In addition to Morton’s resignation, Tesla’s HR chief, Gabrielle Toledano took a leave of absence in August after just over a year in her role. In an email to Bloomberg on Friday, she said she will not return to work at the company. During Toledano’s leave, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured funding for the effort. On August 25, Musk said in a blog post that the company will remain public. Tesla now faces shareholder lawsuits as well as an investigation by the SEC. Earlier this year, Doug Field, who had been SVP for engineering at Tesla, went on a leave of absence and his eventual departure was part of a series of management transitions this year. In June, Musk said Tesla would cut about 9% of its workforce as a result of the company’s previously described organizational restructuring effort and the need to reduce costs and become profitable.
