The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, took quite a different tack in 2015 as compared to many other auto manufacturer CEOs with regard to monetary compensation, with the popular public figure only taking home $37,584 in direct compensation for his work with the company, according to a recent filing.
It should of course be remembered here that Musk owns a huge stake in Tesla — one currently valued at somewhere around $9.5 billion. It should also be remembered that Musk was granted 5.27 million stock options in 2012 — that were supposed to serve as compensation for a decade or so. So, despite the relatively “low” salary, he clearly is being compensated.
Other primary figures in the company took home notably more than Elon Musk. The company’s Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel received a salary of $250,560, and the company’s Vice President of Engineering Doug Field received a salary of $306,923, accompanied by $2,808,785 in stock awards, according to the filing.
Perhaps more notably though, and as reported by Bloomberg, Tesla’s new Chief Financial Officer Jason Wheeler — who was poached from Google late last year it should be remembered — was financially compensated to the tune of around $21 million. To be more specific here, Wheeler received a salary of $46,154 and around $20.85 million in stock option awards.
That’s an interesting financial picture. I wonder what will happen to these figures as the company ramps up production in anticipation of the Model 3 launch? Something else on my mind is whether or not CEO Elon Musk will actually be willing to step back from the company and relinquish his position, as he has said that he would, following mass market success. Who knows on that regard, as he seems to be a bit of a workaholic.