Tesla executive behind Model 3 ramp up has left the company after 10 years
- Jerome Guillen has left Tesla after more than a decade at the company, most recently serving as president of heavy trucking
- With his departure, Tesla loses the brains behind the mass market Model 3 ramp up, leaving two other executives to run the company with CEO Elon Musk
Tesla Inc has parted ways with Jerome Guillen, a 10-year veteran who most recently served as president of heavy trucking and was one of four top executives running the company alongside chief executive officer Elon Musk.
Guillen left the company June 3, according to a regulatory filing Monday. He was a top lieutenant to Musk and the brains behind the ramp up of Model 3 production in 2018. The executive previously served as president of Tesla’s automotive business, and was named head of heavy trucking in March of this year.
“That is a huge and unexpected loss,” Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at New Street Research who has a buy recommendation on the Tesla shares, said in an email. He added the news is part of a pattern of high-level executive departures at the company. “Jerome’s contribution to Tesla will remain part of the company and the company will continue to attract other top-guns.”
Tesla fell as much as 0.8 per cent in post-market trading Monday after closing up 1 per cent to US$605.13. The stock is down about 14 per cent this year.
Guillen, who is French, joined Tesla in the fall of 2010 as the programme director for the Model S, the breakthrough electric vehicle which laid the groundwork for the crossover Model X and more mass market Model 3 that followed. He was 48 years old as of Tesla’s latest annual report.
Guillen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Turnover Struggle
Tesla has struggled with executive turnover for years. Guillen took a several-months-long leave of absence from the company in 2015 but returned in 2016 to lead the company’s Semi truck programme. He was promoted in 2018 to serve as the head of automotive operations.