India-born Chief financial officer of Tesla Inc, Deepak Ahuja has announced his retirement from the company on Thursday.
He would be succeeded by Zach Kirkhorn, the electric car maker’s vice president of finance, who has been with Tesla since the days of the original Roadster.
The announcement of the legendary CFO’s retirement was related near the end of the Q4 earnings call, with CEO Elon Musk expressing his thanks to the executive for his contributions to the company.
“I feel really good about Zach taking over. He’s proven his self over the years with many tough challenges he’s worked on,” Ahuja said.
Deepak, for his part, also thanked Tesla, stating that the company has arguably the best team in the industry. Despite leaving his post, Deepak is set to play a role in the company nonetheless, with Elon Musk stating that he would continue to serve as a “senior adviser” for “probably years to come.”
Ahuja, an IIT-BHU alumni was offered the position of Chief Financial Officer at Tesla Motors in June 2008 but he retired in 2015. He was again re-instated on the same position in Feb 2017.
Growing up in Mumbai, Ahuja originally planned to go into the family business. His parents were serial entrepreneurs who had established several successful businesses, primarily in the garment industry, manufacturing jeans and lingerie.
After Ahuja earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering from Banaras Hindu University, his father invited him to become a business partner in a factory that would manufacture ceramic insulators for the electric grid. The plan was that Ahuja would study in the United States to learn more about ceramic technology, then he would return to India .
The initial part of the plan worked well as in 1985, at the age of 22, Ahuja enrolled in McCormick as a
PhD student in materials science, his first time in the United States. Two years later he had earned
a master’s degree and made a couple of alterations to his life plan, he would not return to India right away, and he would not complete a PhD. “A PhD would have taken me too deeply into pure science,” Ahuja explained in a Mccornick report, and further discovered he was more interested in applied technology.
Ahuja has also worked in several automobile companies like Ford motors and Auto Alliance International.(UNI)
