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Over the last 12 months, at least 10 executives have exited Tesla, including some of CEO Elon Musk’s most loyal lieutenants — from “Musk whisperer” Omead Afshar to longtime sales chief Troy Jones.
To track who remains at the top of the electric-car company, Business Insider reviewed the upper ranks of the company’s internal organizational chart.
As of August, Musk — who is listed on the org chart as “CEO and Technoking” — had 19 direct reports, compared with 35 before a round of layoffs in 2024 and 30 in late 2021. He has maintained nine of the same direct reports over the past three years, including design chief Franz von Holzhausen, who has been with the company since 2008; vice president of AI software Ashok Elluswamy; vice president of vehicle engineering Lars Moravy; and senior vice president of manufacturing in China, Tom Zhu.
An internal Tesla pay sheet obtained by Business Insider in 2024 showed how turbulent Tesla’s upper ranks have been. The company has swapped out at least three HR chiefs and several top legal officers since 2021, and about two-thirds of Musk’s direct reports have left the company between December 2021 and now.
Take a look at Musk’s direct reports, as well as their titles, locations, and tenure at Tesla, below:
Most of Musk’s reports have between three and 30 of their own direct reports.
Konstantinos Laskaris began reporting to Musk this summer. He was previously listed as a director of engineering and has since assumed the same title as Milan Kovac, who led the team building Tesla’s humanoid robot and left in June. Laskaris’ LinkedIn profile says he is working on the robot’s actuators, which convert energy to allow it to move.
Jegannathan began reporting to Musk in July after taking over for Jones and leads US sales and service, according to Reuters. His X profile identifies him as working in “vehicle service,” and he has been responding to customers having delivery issues.
Elluswamy helps oversee the teams responsible for some of the company’s biggest bets, including the Autopilot team and the Optimus team. Elluswamy also took over leadership of some of the engineers that were part of the Dojo team after Pete Bannon left the company in August, two people familiar with the move said.
Most of the direct reports are based in San Francisco, a review of LinkedIn data shows.
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Musk does not have any direct reports in the human resources department following director Jenna Ferrua’s departure in June, per the org chart.
The bulk of the recent executive departures came in two waves: between April and August 2025 and then in October 2024, in the days leading up to the company’s Robotaxi event.
Notable exits included Jones, who had led the sales team in North America for more than 15 years; Kovac; and Afshar, who became one of Musk’s top leaders while the Tesla CEO was working at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Over the past year, the company also lost its chief information officer, Nagesh Saldi, and the director of vehicle programs and new product introduction, Daniel Ho, who left to join the self-driving car company Waymo.
The departures came at a tumultuous time for Tesla. The carmaker has faced headwinds over the past year as delivery numbers continued to fall, and the Trump administration has made cuts to electric vehicle incentives.
The company’s corporate succession plan also attracted attention amid a proposed pay package for Musk. To receive the full compensation plan, Musk must name a successor, in addition to hitting a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion and putting 1 million autonomous vehicles on the road.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
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