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Elon Musk, entrepreneur and Penn graduate, resigns from Tesla's chairman position







Heisenberg Media // CC BY 2.0

Entrepreneur and 1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk resigned as the Chairman of Tesla Wednesday night. He will continue to be the company's Chief Executive Officer.

Robyn Denholm, Chief Financial Officer of Telstra, an Australian telecommunications giant, immediately become Tesla’s Chairwoman.

As reported by The New York Times, the announcement comes six weeks after Tesla settled a securities-fraud lawsuit with federal regulators. The settlement included Tesla naming a new chairman.

Tesla must additionally add two independent board members and set up a permanent committee to monitor Musk’s public declarations, including his Twitter posts, as part of the agreement.

Musk's inflammatory Twitter posts included getting into a social media dispute with a British diver involved in the rescue of 12 boys in a flooded cave in Thailand.

In a company announcement, Musk said he approved of Denholm's appointment.

“I look forward to working even more closely with Robyn as we continue accelerating the advent of sustainable energy,” he said.

Musk's resignation comes a few weeks after he announced that the first high-speed transit tunnel will open in December.

Denholm has been involved with Tesla as an independent director since 2014. After the announcement of Musk stepping down Wednesday evening, Tesla’s shares rose almost 1 percent on Thursday.

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