Tesla's Chief Financial Officer Resigns After 11 Years

"When I joined Tesla in 2013, it was a company with less than $1 billion in revenue and deliveries below 3,000 cars per year," stated Sreela Venkataratnam in her farewell post on LinkedIn. "As I leave, I depart as Vice President, with revenue exceeding $100 billion, a market capitalization that surpassed $1 trillion during the pandemic, and 1.8 million vehicle deliveries."

In a response to former CFO Jason Wheeler of the brand that popularized 100% electric vehicles, Venkataratnam joked that working at Tesla "is certainly not for the faint of heart."

She is the fourth executive to leave Elon Musk's company in the last five months.

Vice President of Investor Relations (Martin Viecha), Vice President of Energy and Propulsion (Drew Baglino), and Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development (Rohan Patel) resigned from their positions last April.

That same month, Musk himself fired Director of Electric Charging, Rebecca Tinucci, and Director of Vehicle Programs, Daniel Ho.

According to analysts at Guidehouse Insights, "the fact that Venkataratnam stayed with the company for 11 years is almost more surprising than her resignation." While her departure will not bring about any substantial changes in the manufacturer's operations, Tesla faces public perception challenges.

In the coming months, the brand is expected to launch its robotaxi service, and there is some skepticism about its functionality as it relies on optical camera systems and eschews the complex (and expensive) lidar used by competitors like Waymo.

Following the update of the Model 3, one of its most successful models, investors and the general public are anticipating similar treatment for the Model Y, its best-selling model.

On another note, Musk has been under scrutiny since his purchase of Twitter and subsequent transformation into X, as well as for his growing support in Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The two participated in a two-hour interview on the virtual platform, where the White House candidate hinted that Musk could take on an advisory role.

Elon Musk had been a favored figure among environmentally-conscious Democratic voters for representing a futuristic way to address transportation emissions problems with clean energy.