Hyperdrive
Musk’s Finance Chief Quietly Tallies Profit Surge at Tesla
- CFO Kirkhorn eschews publicity, builds fortress balance sheet
- 36-year-old Penn, Harvard grad knows engineering and finance
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Tesla Inc. is widely expected to report its sixth consecutive quarterly profit Wednesday -- and potentially its first $1 billion quarter. That follows a remarkable year when Tesla’s stock split and skyrocketed, the company joined the S&P 500 Index and it sold almost half a million cars.
Two years ago, the world’s leading electric-car maker was going through a rough patch. Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, informed employees in a January 2019 open letter that the company had to reduce headcount by 7% and boost Model 3 production rates to survive. Later that month, the CEO told analysts Tesla needed to cut costs and its vehicle prices to avoid bankruptcy.