Tesla has struggled to keep top talent at the company over the last two years as it battles declining sales and a tarnishing brand
Tesla hasn’t been short of problems lately.
Just in the last few months, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla has reported declining sales and bleak second-quarter earnings, been sued by shareholders over its robotaxi claims, found liable in a fatal Autopilot crash and ordered to pay $300 million in damages, launched robotaxis that violated traffic laws, and more. Plus, Musk’s rocky on-again-off-again relationship with President Donald Trump hasn’t helped.
Tesla’s many woes have caused its brand to face public backlash and its stock to dip, dropping nearly 13% this year.
And on top of the EV company’s compiling issues, it has a talent retention problem. Over the last two years alone, six top leaders have departed from Tesla.
On Thursday, news broke that Pete Bannon, Tesla’s leader for its Dojo team, is leaving the company, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. On top of Bannon leaving, the outlet reported that Musk ordered the company’s Dojo operations, which was Tesla’s in-house supercomputer program, to be shut down and the team to be moved to other areas of the company.
Hours after Bloomberg’s report, Musk took to his social media site X to essentially confirm the reporting, saying “it doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs” adding that “all effort” is focused on Tesla’s “AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips.”
Bannon had been at the company since joining as a director in 2016. Before that, he worked at Apple. It doesn’t appear Bannon has made any public comment regarding his exit from Tesla.
Check out the five other top leaders who have left the company in the last two years.
—William Gavin and Diego Lasarte contributed to this article.
2 / 6
Omead Afshar
Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Omead Afshar was Tesla’s leader for sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe, but lost his role after Musk fired Afshar at the end of June, Forbes first reported. He was promoted to his role as VP in 2024.
The outlet cited a recent drop in sales in both markets as a likely reason for Afshar’s firing.
Afshar joined the company in 2017 and had worked in Tesla’s Office of the CEO, per his LinkedIn profile.
As far as where Afsahr is working now, there aren’t any updates. But he still has Tesla’s account featured in his X profile, and his Linkedin profile still says he works at the EV company. Afshar hasn’t posted on X since June 24, two days before news broke of his departure, and on June 23, he made a post thanking Musk after Tesla’s robotaxis were unveiled.
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Milan Kovac
Milan Kovac was Tesla’s vice president for Optimus, the company’s “humanoid robot” per X. He announced his departure from the company in an X post on June 6.
“This week, I’ve had to make the most difficult decision of my life and will be moving out of my position,” Kovac said in his post. “I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad. I want to make it clear that this is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. My support for @elonmusk and the team is ironclad – Tesla team forever.”
He added that “joining Tesla in 2016 as an engineer in the core Autopilot team and then leading a part of it over the years under Elon was already more than I could have hoped for.”
In a separate response the following day, Kovac clarified that he isn’t leaving the country, just plans to travel back and forth.
Musk responded to Kovac’s post by thanking him and telling him to enjoy the time with his family.
Kovac hasn’t announced any new prospects since leaving Tesla, according to his Linkedin profile.
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Andrew Baglino
Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s former senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, resigned from the company in April of last year. He had been with the company since March 2006.
Baglino was one of the original electrical engineers working on the Roadster, Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle, and was a frequent face at investor events. Baglino was also one of Tesla’s four key leaders.
“I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday,” Baglino said in a statement. “I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years.”
News of his departure came shortly after Tesla announced it was cutting more than 10% of its global workforce.
In September 2024, five months after leaving Tesla, Baglino founded his own company called Heron Power, a renewable energy equipment manufacturing company which says its “building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid,” per Linkedin. He is also CEO of the company, according to his Linkedin profile.
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Rohan Patel
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rohan Patel was Tesla’s vice president of public policy and business development. He left the company at the same time as Bagliano in April 2024.
Patel was a familiar face to Tesla’s ultra-online community, often engaging with investors and customers on Musk’s X as a one-man public relations department.
“The past 8 years at Tesla have been filled with every emotion—but the feeling I have today is utmost gratitude,” Patel posted on X, thanking Tesla’s customers, Musk, and his team. “To the broader Tesla team—the never-say-die attitude and scrappiness is what makes the place special,” he added.
Patel is currently serving as a member for three organizations’ boards, according to his Linkedin profile.
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Zachary Kirkhorn
Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s former “master of coin” and chief financial officer, resigned from the company in August 2023. He had been seen as a likely successor and, like Baglino, was a familiar face at investor events. He was replaced by Vaibhav Taneja, who is now Tesla’s chief accounting officer and CFO.
Kirkhorn was a big loss for the company’s executive team. A 13-year Tesla veteran, he was promoted to CFO after serving as vice president of finance. Kirkhorn was the third Tesla CFO to resign in the six years since before he resigned, including the abrupt and highly scrutinized departure of Jason Wheeler in 2017.
Although Kirkhorn’s Linkedin profile still reads his last job as Tesla’s CFO, the Wall Street Journal reported in March that Kirkhorn joined the board of startup Jolly, founded by a former Tesla intern, and completed a round of funding in January. The outlet noted this is his first big move since leaving Tesla.