April 10, 2023: On Friday, according to an SEC filing, Tesla appointed JB Straubel, the CEO and owner of e-waste recycler Redwood Materials, to its council of leaders with eight members. Straubel founded his Carson City, Nevada, recycling business while still providing as CTO of Tesla in 2017 and left the automaker focusing on it in 2019.

Straubel is deemed a co-founder of Tesla because of his engineering and operations leadership at Tesla from early on. Entering the company in 2004, well before Elon Musk became CEO, Straubel oversaw the building of Tesla’s initial battery factory outside Reno, among other things.

If he wins shareholders’ votes, Straubel will replace current Tesla board member Hiromichi Mizuno, who will not stand for re-election at the firm’s annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for May 16.

Besides Straubel, Tesla is appointing CEO Elon Musk, and chair Robyn Denholm has been again elected to the board of directors.

According to its annual report, Tesla is questioning investors to again Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) as the firm’s auditor and to vote on two executive compensation matters.

Only one shareholder-submitted proxy invite will be eligible for a vote in May. Stockholders stated that Tesla provides a “key-person risk” report to investors, identifying the way the firm would deal with the departure of critical executives from retirement to an untimely death.

Of particular issue is Tesla’s reliance on CEO Elon Musk. The company has repeatedly stated in financial filings that it is “highly dependent on the services” of Musk.

Since the previous downfall, many Tesla investors have criticized Musk’s decision to trade billions of dollars worth of his Tesla holdings to lead a $44 billion buyout of Twitter. Musk has selected himself and remains CEO of the social media platform and has authorized an increase high Tesla employees to work together, too.

A Tesla director, James Murdoch, testified in court that Musk has confidentially spoken about a potential successor to head the E.V. business with him. But a few investors are still looking for replies about the key-man risk.