In a statement on Tesla's website on Wednesday, six of Tesla's nine directors said the board had met several times over the last week to discuss such an idea and was "taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this." The six directors are Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch.
The following is a snapshot of the nine members on Tesla's board:
Member Background
Member since
Elon Musk 2004 Tesla's Chief Executive Officer and
co-founder. Owns a roughly 20 percent
stake in Tesla. Also serves as CEO of
SpaceX.
Brad Buss 2009 Served as chief financial officer of
solar panel installer SolarCity for
two years before retiring in 2016.
Tesla bought SolarCity that year. Buss
was also CFO of Cypress Semiconductor.
Ira 2007 Founder and managing partner of
Ehrenpreis venture capital firm DBL Partners,
which is an investor in Tesla,
according to its website. Ehrenpreis
bagged the first Model 3 car, having
been the first to put down a deposit,
but later gifted it to Musk.
Antonio 2007 Lead independent director at Tesla
Gracias since 2010. Founder and chief
executive officer of Valor Equity
Partners. In May this year,
influential proxy adviser ISS
recommended that investors vote
against his election to the board.
Robyn 2014 The first woman to join Tesla's board,
Denholm Denholm is chief operations officer of
telecom firm Telstra and the ex-CFO of
network gear maker Juniper Networks
.
James 2017 The CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox
Murdoch and chairman of Sky Plc
. ISS in May recommended that
investors vote against his election to
the board as he is "overboarded" -
serving on several other boards.
Steve 2009 Co-founder of Silicon Valley venture
Jurvetson capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
He resigned from DFJ in November 2017,
following allegations of sexual
harassment against him. He is on a
leave of absence from Tesla's board
since then.
Kimbal 2004 Elon Musk's brother and co-founder of
Musk restaurant chain The Kitchen. Kimbal,
according to media reports, has been
criticized for his lack of experience
in the auto industry, as well as his
role as an independent director at
burrito chain Chipotle, which
has faced major health and food safety
issues.
Linda Rice 2017 First African-American and second
woman to join Tesla's board. Current
chairman of Johnson Publishing Co,
home to Ebony and Jet magazines.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)