The committee, made up of Tesla directors Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm and Linda Johnson Rice, will wade into a deal that has puzzled Wall Street since a surprise announcement by Musk on Twitter last week.
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 and
called him a non-independent director.
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. ISS also called
him a non-independent director,
despite Tesla considering him an
independent member.
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,
which previously owned Ebony and Jet
magazines.
(This version of the story corrects last item to say Johnson Publishing previously owned Ebony and Jet magazines)
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)
