Ex-Tesla Board Member Criticizes Increase in Elon Musk's Salary

By Jose Resurreccion

Jun 07 2024, 06:18 AM EDT

Ex-Tesla Board Member Criticizes Increase in Elon Musk's Salary — Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel,on May 6, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Tesla would hold an investor meeting next week, with one of the agenda being an increase in CEO Elon Musk's pay package to $56 billion.

Former Tesla board member and clean technology venture capitalist Steve Westly said that he is siding with current board members plotting a coup against the move to increase Musk's salary.

He told CNBC Thursday (June 6) that he understood why some board members have their reservations about the salary increase, stressing what he perceived as Musk's "hubris" given that the electric vehicle manufacturing firm actually missed its latest quarterly profit targets, it has been slowing down growth-wise, and have just laid off 15% of its workforce.

Westly served on Tesla's board from 2007 to 2010. He was also the former controller and chief financial officer of the state of California. He has also served on the boards of California's two largest pension funds, CalSTRS and CalPERS, where he has an over $500 billion stake.

On the other hand, Ark Investment Management CEO and longtime Tesla bull investor Cathe Wood shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter which Musk also owns, that no other executive was "aligned" with its shareholders as Musk, claiming that he committed to having no salary or other compensation for 10 years unless he created what she called "tremendous value" for Tesla shareholders. She added that shareholders would also benefit from another five or more years with Musk at Tesla's helm.

Drama in Tesla's Board

VCPost recently reported about Musk's pay package and the brewing shareholder coup regarding it in the Tesla board.

Late last month, the company issued a strong criticism against proxy advisory services firm Glass Lewis after it issued what Tesla claimed as a "scaremongering" 71-page report urging stakeholders to revolt against the decision to increase Musk's pay.

Tesla also defended the decision to increase Musk's salary, arguing that it incentivizes him to generate significant value for the company's shareholders.

It was revealed Thursday (June 6) that billionaire investor Ron Baron supported Musk's salary increase.