Tesla’s Chairwoman Robyn Denholm complains that everyone is talking about the high-profile departures at the automaker, but no one is talking about the people they are hiring.
Can she name one? Literally, name just one.
At Electrek, we have been closely reporting on the talent exodus at Tesla.
The issue has been ongoing for a few years, but it clearly accelerated following a significant wave of layoffs in April 2024.
To name a few:
- Omead Afshar, Vice President of Sales and Manufacturing for North America and Europe, departed in June 2025. Afshar was a close confidante of CEO Elon Musk and was instrumental in the ramp-up of Gigafactory Texas.
- Milan Kovac, head of the Optimus humanoid robot program, announced his departure in June 2025.
- Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, left the company in April 2025. A long-time Tesla veteran, Baglino was a key figure in the development of Tesla’s battery and powertrain technology.
- Rohan Patel, Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development, also departed in April 2025. Patel was the face of Tesla’s government relations and policy efforts.
- Rebecca Tinucci, Senior Director of the Supercharger business, left in April 2025. Tinucci oversaw the significant expansion of Tesla’s global charging network.
- David Lau, Vice President of Software Engineering, departed in April 2025. Lau played a crucial role in the development of Tesla’s vehicle software and its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features.
- Troy Jones, Vice President of North American Sales and Service, left in July 2025. Jones was a long-serving executive responsible for a significant portion of Tesla’s sales and delivery operations.
- Pete Bannon, Vice President of Hardware Engineering, who was involved in the development of Tesla’s custom chips, including the Dojo supercomputer, left in August 2025.
Recently, the Financial Times released a report highlighting the talent exodus at Tesla and Chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, complained that the media only focuses on the departures and not the people “joining” Tesla, which she described as “still a magnet for talent”:
“There are always headlines about people leaving, but I don’t see the headlines about people joining. Our bench strength is outstanding . . . we actually develop people really well at Tesla and we are still a magnet for talent.”
However, she couldn’t name a single one.
To be clear, we primarily report on higher-profile and senior-level departures (directors and above), but we track all of them.
Just for example, here are a dozen people at important but not senior roles at Tesla who departed over the last month but were never reported:
Basil Sobchak
- Time at Tesla: 10 years, 6 months
- General Role: Vehicle Service Lead
Patrick Barr
- Time at Tesla: 8 years, 7 months
- General Role: Facilities Maintenance Lead
Luke Sanders
- Time at Tesla: 7 years, 1 month
- General Role: Production Management (Model Y – Fremont)
Indra K Vijay
- Time at Tesla: 6 years, 1 month
- General Role: Software Engineering Management
Logan Roy
- Time at Tesla: 5 years, 3 months
- General Role: Mechanical Engineering (Battery Structures)
Lexi Hayden
- Time at Tesla: 4 years, 4 months
- General Role: Technical Program Management (Semi Validation)
Francisco Fernández
- Time at Tesla: 4 years, 3 months
- General Role: Supply Chain Management
Andrew Wells
- Time at Tesla: 3 years, 8 months
- General Role: Construction Management (Gigafactory Texas)
Aleksi V.
- Time at Tesla: 3 years, 3 months
- General Role: Production Management (Drive Unit & Battery)
Page Bailey
- Time at Tesla: 2 years, 1 month
- General Role: Engineering (Production & Components)
Sam Thorpe
- Time at Tesla: 2 years, 1 month
- General Role: Technical Program Management (Lithium Refinery)
Harika Kasula
- Time at Tesla: 1 year, 7 months
- General Role: Manufacturing Controls Engineering (Cybertruck)
However, we cannot produce the same thing about new hires, not only for the last month, but for the last year.
With all the departures, Tesla almost exclusively promotes internally to fill the position, and the vast majority of new hires are at the intern and junior levels.
There is one part of Denholm’s statement that is accurate: Tesla is still able to attract talent, but only from recent graduates, and even then, there’s room to worry.
In 2020, Tesla ranked number one in places where engineering students want to work.
Tesla has now slipped into 9th place this year, according to Universum:
This is obviously still good, but it is on a pronounced downtrend.
Electrek’s Take
Look, turnover in large companies is absolutely normal, but the story is much bigger than that.
First off, Denholm remains a joke. She is complaining about the media not reporting on new Tesla hires, but the company hasn’t announced any new hires in years, and I literally can’t find any.
If she is going to claim that, she should at least name a few. Is she capable of doing that, or is her entire job about trying to secure increasingly more ridiculous compensation packages for Elon Musk?
On the other hand, I can find dozens of critical veteran Tesla employees leaving over the last year and hundreds of experienced employees.
The talent exodus is real, and the fact that Tesla’s chairwoman is dismissing it should be worrying.
We are referring to many of the individuals responsible for the company’s success, who are being replaced by juniors and interns.
Now, I’m the first to admit that this is not all bad. Fresh eyes and young talent can do a lot, but it doesn’t dismiss the fact that there’s a talent exodus at Tesla.
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