Tesla Takes on Tech Industry Talent

Tesla Motors announced in a press release Friday that it has absorbed expertise from the tech industry and beyond to fill gaps left by a gradual exodus of high-ranking technical and executive personnel.

Stuart Bowers, who was until recently the vice president of monetization engineering at Snap Incorporated, the owner of Snapchat, prior to which, Bowers worked for Facebook. At both social media giants, Bowers worked on software infrastructure and machine learning, both of which are important for Tesla's business model, which more closely resembles that of a tech company than a traditional automaker. Bowers has signed on as vice president of engineering.

The company's director of energy manufacturing, Neeraj Manrao, is a former technical operations lead at Apple. Little information on this position can be found online, and The Drive's inquiries to Tesla as to whether this is a new position have not been answered, but we will update as information becomes available.

The role of director of production engineering at Tesla's "Gigafactory" will be assumed by Kevin Mukai, who has experience with electronics manufacturing design.

As part of Tesla's plans to enter the Chinese market, a financial executive hailing from Ingersoll Rand, General Motors, and General Electric joins Tesla's China team. James Zhou is his name, and he picked up his China market chief financial officer lanyard last month.

Alexandra Veitch was hired around this time as well, as senior director for North American government relations and policy, and is both a former employee of IT company CSRA and a White House official under the Obama administration.

Director of field delivery operations will soon be Kate Pearson, who used to serve as the vice president of digital acceleration for Walmart's e-commerce division. Her responsibilities there were in the field of home grocery delivery services. 

Former Amazon director of logistics operations Mark Mastandrea, also experienced in residential delivery services, will take on the responsibilities of director of vehicle delivery operations.

Lastly, Myriam Attou is now in charge of the company's regional sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with her experience at clothing companies La Perla and Burberry serving as the foundation of her relevant experience.