Tesla Appoints Indian American Chartered Accountant Vaibhav Taneja as Chief Financial Officer
- He is the automaker's second desi CFO at a time when the company is eyeing plans to manufacture in India.
Indian American Vaibhav Taneja has been appointed the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Elon Musk’s electric car company announced earlier this week. The 54-year-old Delhi University graduate replaces Zachary Kirkhorn, who stepped down, “but will stay on until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition,” Forbes India reported.
He becomes the automaker’s second Indian-origin CFO “at a time when the company is eyeing plans to manufacture in the country,” the magazine said. Deepak Ahuja, the Mumbai-born executive, had earlier served as Tesla’s CFO
Taneja’s journey with Tesla began in 2017 after he switched from a solar energy firm SolarCity taken over by Tesla, where he served in various finance and accounting roles, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that he spent 16 years at global consultancy firm PwC.
At Tesla, he has served as its Chief Financial Officer since August 2023. Before his appointment as CFO, he was Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer since March 2019, as well as as Corporate Controller, and Assistant Corporate Controller. He holds a Bachelors of Commerce degree from Delhi University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
He is among a handful of Indian-born executives “who have made it to the top at the world’s most valuable auto brand,” Forbes India said. In 2020, Jay Vijayan, “a former CIO of Tesla, who worked closely with Musk built Tekion, a cloud-based subscription service for automakers, into a unicorn after his company raised $150 million in a Series C financing round.”