Tesla names Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Walgreen exec to board
Tesla has added billionaire Larry Ellison to its board of directors to supervise Elon Musk â despite the fact that Ellison has called hęĶimself a âvery close friendâ of the bad-boy tech tycoon.
Ellison, co-founder of software giant Oracle, joined Teslaâs board on Friday as part of a settleðŊment with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the Tesla chief executâĶiveâs misleading Aug. 7 tweet about talks to tęĶake the electric-car maker private.
Musk has likewise given up the chairman role at Tesla, and on Friday the company also named to its boâĶaðļrd Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, the global head of human resources at drugstore giant Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Nevertheless, corporate-governaðnce experts pounced on the fact that Ellison, who through a spokeswoman declined to commenęĶt, had gotten on a soapbox just two months ago to defend Musk against critics as he disclosed a 3-million-share Tesla stake.
âIâm very close friends with Elon Musk, and Iâm a big investor in Tesla,â Ellison saðid on a Oct. 2āē6 conference call with analysts.
âThðđis guy is landing rockeāą ts,â Ellison added about Musk, referring to his leadership of SpaceX. âHeâs landing rockets on robot drone rafts in the ocean, and youâre saying he doesnât know what heâs doing. Well, who else is landing a rocket?â
Tesla said it conducted a âthorough, expansiveâ search process for the directors, calling Ellison a âpreeminent entrepreneurâ and Wilson-Thompson âa human resourcesð leaderâ and said both had a passion for sustainable energy.
But Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corpðorate Governance at the University of Delaware, called Ellisonâs appointment âdisappointing,â adding that Tesla investors would have benefitted from someone âindependent and objective.â
âThis is not, I would imagine, what the SEC expected, and I would imagine itâs not what the other investors wanted or expected,â ðElson said. âI think Elon probably had a significant part in the process.â
Ellison, the 10th-richest person in the world with a net worth ofðŧ nearly $50 billion, is known for throwing lavish parties on private islands.
Tesla shares on Friday rose 5.6 percent to $3ð33.87.
Under an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk agreed to pay a $20 million fine and step aside as Teslaâs chairman for three years to settle charges thatð could have forced his exit. Tesla alð so agreed to pay a $20 million fine.