Musk, the world’s richest man, first earned widespread fame by making Tesla one of the biggest EV manufacturers in the world. More recently, Musk has veered into politics with his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is using what some regard as brutal methods to shrink the federal workforce. Musk is part of Trump’s second administration and often makes public appearances at the White House—while also running five other companies plus Tesla, which is the only publicly-traded one and by far the biggest. How does he find the time?
The answer is he has long relied on trusted lieutenants. You can scroll directly to the chart below, but note one top Musk aide is Omead Afshar, a former ski instructor who has worked for Tesla for more than six years and lists his most recent position as “office of the CEO.” Afshar oversaw construction of Gigafactory Texas and moved to SpaceX in late 2022, where he’s working on the Starship deep-space rocket. There’s also Tom Zhu, whose leadership has helped make Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai an essential part of the company’s global strategy. Charles Kuehmann, the former director of product design at Apple, works for both Tesla and SpaceX, where he is currently VP, materials engineering. He is credited with helping develop the steel alloy used for Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck.
Like many Musk companies, Tesla is not forthcoming with information and did not respond to requests for comment. Fortune relied on news reports, government documents and filings, as well as social media posts including LinkedIn and X, to compile its list of executives. We attempted to contact everyone. Scroll further down to find links that reveal who is running Musk’s other operations, including DOGE.
Read more:
- The top power players at SpaceX, Elon Musk's space tech company
- The top power players at X, Elon Musk's social media company
- The top power players at Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain tech startup
- The top power players at Elon Musk's OpenAI competitor, xAI
- The top power players at Elon Musk's tunnel firm The Boring Company
- The top power players at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
This story has been updated from a version that was originally published in November 2023.