In July, Airbnb co-founder Joseph Gebbia left his full-time position there and joined Tesla’s board.
The co-founder of Airbnb Inc., Joseph Gebbia, joined the board of directors of Tesla Inc. on Wednesday, reversing a decision to reduce the number of directors at the most valuable automaker in the world. Following the departure of Oracle Inc. co-founder Larry Ellison in August, Tesla announced in June that it will have just seven board seats, drawing criticism from a shareholder organization for the absence of independent board members.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received a complaint from SOC Investment Group in July alleging that Tesla’s proposal did not follow a 2018 “consent decree” with the SEC, which required having two independent board seats.
That arrangement was the result of Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk’s tweet about going private. Tesla recruited Ellison, a man who calls Musk a close friend, in December 2018 to follow the contract.
Gebbia, a millionaire designer and Internet entrepreneur from the United States, joins Tesla after announcing in July that he would stand down from his full-time position and take on an advising role at Airbnb.
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At the time, Musk tweeted, “Congrats on an amazing company with Airbnb, now for Book 2!”In text exchanges released this year as part of ongoing shareholder litigation, Gebbia had praised Musk’s bid to take Tesla private in 2018 as a “baller move” Being in the public, said Musk, “Sucks.”
Whether the billionaire will diversify the Tesla board was questioned by some academics.
“It appears to be more of the same. Rather than someone fresh and new, more of Mr. Musk’s bros, “John Coffee, a professor and the center’s director at Columbia Law School, made this statement. Tesla stated in a regulatory filing that Gebbia, 41, has forfeited all rights to cash remuneration and has agreed to forgo taking any stock-based incentives until July 2023.
