Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm Decides To Dummy Up When Asked About Elon Musk

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Last Updated on: 25th March 2025, 06:12 pm

What obligation — if any — does the chair of the board of directors of a publicly traded company have to comment on the actions of the corporation’s largest stockholder and CEO? Robyn Denholm has been the chair of the Tesla board since November 2018. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge at Tesla. At one time, it was on a path to double the number of cars it produced every year, but things have turned sour lately, with sales in some countries down over 40 percent or more.

In the past year, Elon Musk, who owns the most shares of Tesla and is the wealthiest person in the history of the world, decided to embrace the authoritarian policies of the the Republican nominee for president of the United States and become the loudest voice in the MAGAlomaniac movement. He contributed over $300 million to the election campaign of the current occupant of the Offal Office, exhorted Germans to get over the Nazi thing, excoriated the British government, and disparaged Canada frequently. He complained bitterly that those who do not see the world from his distorted and disturbed point of view are infected with a “woke mind virus,” never stopping to think that in a pluralist society, not everyone will see the world in the same way.

Many believe Musk’s tirades are the primary reason why Tesla sales are declining while sales of electric cars from other manufacturers are picking up speed. There are other reasons, of course. Tesla has refused to bring new models to market despite the urgings of its most senior engineers because Musk simply refused to do so. He has put all his eggs in the robotaxi basket. Although, a revised and less costly version of the Model Y is now on the horizon.

Denholm Dodges All Questions

On March 25, 2025, Denholm was in Melbourne, Australia, to address a financial services conference in her role as the chair of the Tech Council of Australia. On her way into the conference venue, Denholm studiously ignored questions about Tesla and Musk. When asked if she was concerned about Musk’s right-wing allegiances or his opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, she declined to answer. Asked if she had a message for Tesla shareholders, she did not respond. A woman accompanying Denholm said they would not comment or respond to any questions. She then went on to give a keynote speech that focused on Australia’s inadequate investment in research and development. Nothing in the speech pertained to Tesla or her role as chair of the board of directors for Tesla.

Bloomberg has termed her silence as a missed opportunity to address all manner of crises swirling around Tesla. Musk’s role as a top adviser to the current US president has made Tesla a target for protests and vandalism at home and abroad. The billionaire CEO’s actions and social media activity are alienating would-be buyers and leading owners of Tesla cars to distance themselves from his politics and the company’s damaged brand. Shortly after Denholm’s appearance, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said Tesla’s sales in the region plunged 40% in February. The company’s 43% drop in the first two months of the year looks all the more abysmal when compared with the 31% rise in industry-wide registrations of new EVs.

The time and attention Musk has been devoting to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has exacerbated concerns that the he is stretched too thin and devoting insufficient time to Tesla. Even before Musk began overseeing efforts to purge federal workers and gut government agencies, Tesla was one of six companies he was leading — the others being SpaceX, X, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. Musk, with a more than $340 billion fortune, told Fox Business earlier this month that he was having “great difficulty” running his businesses in parallel with all he’s been up to in Washington. He sought to reassure Tesla employees during a meeting last week and urged them to hang on to their stock. That advice doesn’t seem to pertain to Denholm, however.

The Financial Review reports that, to date, she has cashed in about $532 million worth of Tesla shares, according to Equilar, which analysed dozens of regulatory filings regarding her compensation and stock sales over her time on the board. Some of those sales came as recently as early March, making her the highest paid board member of a large public corporation. With her wealth has come criticism of her compensation — and pointed questions about whether the windfall is compromising her oversight of Tesla and the billionaire who enriched her.

A Judge Has Questions

In her ruling last year, the Delaware judge who rejected Musk’s compensation package suggested that Denholm’s lucrative board pay had hindered her ability to perform her duties. “Ordinary, market rate compensation does not compromise a director’s independence. Outsized director compensation can,” wrote Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery. The judge specifically suggested that Denholm lacked independence because she owed most of her wealth to her services as a Tesla director. She raked in $280 million exercising Tesla options just in 2021 and 2022, a sum she described as “life-changing.”

In her few public remarks about the potential conflict of interest posed by her outsized earnings, Denholm has said her newfound wealth makes her less beholden to Musk, not more. In an interview with the Financial Times last May, she dismissed Judge McCormick’s criticism of her tenure as chair as “crap,” saying, “If I didn’t agree with something that was going on at the company, I could walk away tomorrow.” That may be so, yet some would argue she has done next to nothing to earn her compensation, especially when it comes to addressing the damage Musk has done to the brand since he purchased Twitter.

Denholm’s appearance at the Asia Pacific Financial and Innovation Symposium in Melbourne might be her last as chair of the Tech Council of Australia — the hat she usually wears for public appearances in her home country — after recently announcing she would cede the role to Scott Farquhar, co-founder of software company Atlassian. One of the Symposium’s initiatives has been to increase the number of women working in the tech industry.

It announced a program earlier this month with several companies that will “highlight the benefit of tech careers and the promotion of gender, equity, and inclusion in the tech sector.” That position is contrary to Musk’s stance on DEI, which he has called “just another word for racism.” He has also written and amplified posts on X blaming everything from the Los Angeles wildfires to Boeing’s manufacturing lapses on DEI policies. By her silence, Denholm is enabling Musk and undercutting her own beliefs. But that’s OK; she is laughing all the way to the bank.