“I frankly don’t want to be the CEO of any company,” Elon said.
He stated as much during testimony on Wednesday at a trial challenging his hefty compensation package from Tesla. Musk, the CEO of numerous businesses, most recently Twitter, was responding to inquiries from legal counsel for Tesla when he made the unintentional remark.
The trial, which began on Monday, is centred on whether Tesla's board acted appropriately when it authorised a pay deal for Musk worth almost $52 billion at current share prices, and whether Musk had undue influence over that decision.
But Musk's evidence also covered his titles, how he spends his time, and, most crucially, whether he was inebriated when he declared himself “technoking” of Tesla in 2021. (He claimed to be sober, but his lilt indicated otherwise.)
He revealed why he dislikes the title of CEO at his numerous enterprises, stating that he does not see himself as a traditional CEO.
“At SpaceX, it’s really that I’m responsible for the engineering of the rockets and Tesla for the technology in the car that makes it successful,” Musk said. “So, CEO is often viewed as somewhat of a business-focused role, but in reality, my role is much more that of an engineer developing technology and making sure that we develop breakthrough technologies and that we have a team of incredible engineers who can achieve those goals.”
He also stated that he does not expect to remain CEO of Twitter indefinitely. Musk took over the company two weeks ago and has since let off half of the employees, introduced and withdrawn various new product concepts, and oversaw the departure of major established advertisers.
“I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” he said. (Musk previously told investors that he only expected to be Twitter's CEO for a limited time.)
According to James Murdoch, a former Tesla board member, Musk is considering stepping down as CEO of Tesla. Later in the day, Murdoch testified that Musk has expressly mentioned who he wants to succeed him as CEO of Tesla — but was not asked by lawyers for the plaintiffs to name that individual. In his pre-trial deposition, Murdoch stated that Musk had not specifically mentioned a successor, but had done so in the intervening time.
Originally published on TimesNowNews.com
