This Could Have Been Tesla’s New Chairman

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has to step down as chairman of the company for a minimum of three years after the hot water he got himself into with the U.S. Securities and Exchange.

Musk had reached a settlement with SEC regulators in September in which him and Tesla agreed to pay $20 million each to financial regulators and that he would step down as chairman.

According to the Financial Times, it’s outgoing Twenty-First Century Fox Inc CEO James Murdoch that is the lead candidate to replace Musk.

The Financial Times cited two people who were briefed on discussions over the matter. Murdoch is currently a non-executive director of Tesla and has made it evident that he would want the position according to the report.

James is the son of Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch and joined Tesla’s board in 2017. It was this past May that proxy advisers Glass Lewis & Co and Institutional Shareholder Services and activist investor CtW Investment opposed the re-election of Murdoch to Tesla’s board.

According to Glass Lewish, Murdoch already served on too many other boards while CtW Investment said he had a “troubled history as an executive and director.”

Musk has 45 days to step down as chairman of Tesla under the SEC settlement. He took to his twitter to say the report from the Financial Times was “incorrect.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and have not been compensated for this article.