Delhi University graduate heads Tesla’s finance team

TESLA’S Indian-origin accounting officer has been made the electric carmaker's chief finance officer.

Vaibhav Taneja succeeds Zachary Kirkhorn who stepped down from the position after 13 years of association with the Austin-based company headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

Kirkhorn, who had succeeded Indian-American Deepak Ahuja as the CFO in 2019, did not cite any reason for leaving his role but thanked Musk “for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people”.

In a LinkedIn post on Monday (7), Kirkhorn said Tesla “announced that I’ve stepped down from my role as Chief Financial Officer, succeeded by our Chief Accounting Officer, Vaibhav Taneja.”

Taneja, a commerce graduate from Delhi University, joined the solar energy company SolarCity in 2016 where he worked as vice president and corporate controller for seven months. When it was acquired by Tesla in 2017, he worked for the integration of the accounting teams of the two companies. In 2019, he was elevated to the role of chief accounting officer. He also became the director of Tesla’s Indian arm in 2021.

Taneja, 45, has more than 17 years of experience working with multinational companies in technology, retail and telecommunication, having worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 12 years.

The certified public accountant was associated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India between 1997 and 2000.

Kirkhorn wrote, “As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought not possible.”