Elon Musk Changes Title At Tesla To ‘Technoking’
Musk becomes ‘Technoking’ of Tesla and chief financial officer Zach Kirkhorn becomes ‘Master of Coin’, as company pushes ahead with Semi electric truck
Elon Musk has changed his official title at electric carmaker Tesla to “Technoking”, the company has said.
Zach Kirkhorn, the firm’s chief financial officer, is to be known officially as “Master of Coin”, the company said in a filing with the US financial regulator.
The SEC filing added that the two would retain their positions chief executive and chief financial officer at the company.
The change follows Tesla’s purchase of $1.5 billion (£1.1bn) in Bitcoin earlier this year, a move possibly alluded to in Kirkhorn’s new title.
‘Erratic’
Neither Musk nor Kirkhorn have elaborated on the change.
However, Musk is well-known for projecting a larger-than-life, irreverent persona.
Over the weekend he posted an excerpt from Puck’s closing speech in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Twitter, along with the caption “A puckish rogue”, seemingly alluding to his own intended role as a disruptive outsider.
Musk’s online mischief has landed him in trouble more than once, with Musk and Tesla sued last week over his “erratic” Twitter activity.
The lawsuit mentioned a May 2020 tweet that Tesla’s share price was “too high”, a remark that triggered a $13bn slide in the company’s market value.
Musk and Tesla each paid $20m in penalties following a 2018 tweet that he had “secured” funding to take the company private, a statement that turned out not to be true.
Electric trucks
Tesla also said Jerome Guillen, previously head of the company’s automotive unit, has moved to run its electric truck business.
The “Semi” class 8 electric truck was announced in 2017, but production has been delayed several times and is currently due to begin this year.
“As Tesla prepares to enter the critical heavy-trucks market for the first time, Mr Guillen will now leverage his extensive background in this industry to focus on and lead all aspects of the Tesla Semi programme, including the related charging and servicing networks,” Tesla said in a statement.
