Elon Musk's Closest Confidant, Tesla's Senior Executive Quits
Omead Afshar, a powerful executive at Tesla Inc. and one of Elon Musk's closest confidants, has left the company, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest high-level departure during a volatile period for the electric vehicle maker.
News of the exit has circulated internally among some employees in recent days, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal information. Afshar's name no longer appeared to show up in an internal directory, two of the people said. The reason for the change and his future plans weren't immediately clear.
Some of the directors who reported to Afshar now report to Tom Zhu, Tesla's senior vice president of automotive, according to some of the people. The Chinese-born executive oversees Tesla's factory in Shanghai and is one of the company's three named executive officers.
Afshar, Musk, Zhu and Tesla didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tesla Vice President Omead Afshar, left, at a Tesla manufacturing facility in Shanghai in 2019.
Afshar, who has worked in the office of the CEO, was promoted last year to oversee sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe. Those markets have become particular pain points for the automaker recently, with sales plunging due to rising competition and a consumer backlash to Musk's role in US President Donald Trump's administration.
This marks the latest departure of a prominent Tesla leader in recent weeks. Milan Kovac, the head of engineering for the company's Optimus humanoid robot program, stepped down citing a desire to spend more time with his family.
Jenna Ferrua, who is listed on LinkedIn as a human resources director for North America, has also left Tesla and no longer appears to be in the company directory, according to people familiar.
The personnel changes punctuate a tumultuous year for Tesla, whose shares have tumbled about 19% while demand has waned for its EV models and Musk has spent time in Washington. The chief executive officer is trying to reorient the company around artificial intelligence, robots and driverless cars, recently rolling out a small number of Tesla's long-promised robotaxis in Austin.
Tesla is expected to report global delivery results for the second quarter next week.
Its shares briefly turned negative after Bloomberg reported Afshar's departure, and were little changed as of 1:57 p.m. in New York.
Tesla Tenure
Afshar joined Tesla in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, as the carmaker was beginning to ramp up production of the Model 3 sedan.
"I was with Elon nearly every single day during Model 3 hell," he said in a 2024 post on X, the social media platform that Musk owns. "This included Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, his birthday and nearly missing his brother's wedding."
Afshar was posting regularly on social media in recent days, including several messages this week praising the robotaxi launch.
The executive oversaw the construction of Tesla's plant in Austin. A member of the office of the CEO since 2017, his most recent job title was listed on his LinkedIn page as a cowboy hat emoji.
He came under internal scrutiny in 2022 for his role in purchasing hard-to-get construction materials, including a special kind of glass, Bloomberg reported.
It's not unusual for executives to shuffle from one part of Musk's empire to another, and Afshar worked at SpaceX for a time.
Tesla has just three named executive officers: Musk, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja and Zhu.
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