Elon Musk, Tesla´s famed founder, CEO, and previous chairman resigned as chairman after a series of incidents that made bad press.
A common question is what is the difference between a CEO (chief executive officer) and a chairman? Before you read forward you should understand the difference between a CEO and a chairman. In a review, a CEO is the face of the company and ensures the company’s efficiency and stability. A chairman is more concerned with pleasing the stockholders, and focuses more on counseling.
The resignation was triggered by many issues adding up and in the end a lawsuit about fraud. Weeks ago Musk started talking about making Tesla private; he raised the stock prices in hopes people would sell their shares and he could but them back. Two weeks ago, Elon Musk was legally smoking marijuana. Although it was legal, the backlash was still major. Share prices dropped nine percent and his company was plunged into a vat of public relations issues. After this event Elon Musk and Tesla settled over a charge of fraud. Both Musk and Tesla have to pay twenty million dollars but Musk can remain CEO. This resulted in Musk’s resignation as chairman.
Musk has also been involved in arguments over Twitter with people. For example, after Musk offered a submarine to help rescue the soccer team stuck in a Thailand cave, a diver responded by saying it was just a stunt to gain publicity. Musk fired back calling the diver things like a ¨pedophile¨ and a ¨child rapist¨. This debate quickly escalated until Musk urged that he should sue. “Musk will be sued — not because of his hopes, but because he deserves to be sued,” responded the diver’s attorney, L. Lin Wood, also stating “Elon Musk’s ongoing campaign of publishing vile and false accusations against Mr. Unsworth (the diver) is outrageous.”
At FCS, when asked about the situation, Solomon Murphy ‘23 saids that ¨it’s not a crime, and it was legal so he shouldn’t be punished.¨ When asked if Elon Musk had responded to the diver in a reasonable way Solomon stated, ¨he should have just stayed quiet.¨ While Elon Musk is a genius it seems he has no filters while dealing with people.
by Dev Gupta ’23
