The head of Jeff Bezos’s family office has departed from the board of Slate, the EV startup backed by the Amazon founder, leaving Bezos without direct representation on the company’s board months before its low-cost electric pickup enters production.
Melinda Lewison, who leads investments at Bezos Expeditions, stepped down at some point in the past several months, TechCrunch first reported on Thursday, citing filings with the Delaware, Florida, and Massachusetts secretaries of state.
The exit removes the most direct line between Bezos and the Michigan-based startup at a critical juncture.
Slate is targeting production start at its reindustrialised Warsaw, Indiana plant later this year, with first customer deliveries scheduled for before the year end.
The company also has more than 160,000 refundable reservations to convert into binding orders when preorders open in June.
A Hands-Off Backer
Bezos’s investment has been formally channelled through Bezos Expeditions — the single-family office Lewison has run since around 2005 — rather than directly.
The firm manages more than $200 billion of Bezos’s personal assets, up from roughly $108 billion cited in 2020, with venture and private equity positions across Airbnb, Twitter/X, Insider, NotCo, Arrived Homes, and dozens of others spanning tech, media, infrastructure, and agriculture.
Bezos Expeditions participated in Slate‘s Series A round in 2023, which totalled at least $111 million across 16 investors.
Slate has not disclosed how much Bezos personally contributed to that round, nor whether Bezos Expeditions participated in the company’s Series B round or in the $650 million Series C closed last month, led by Mark Walter’s TWG Global.
The Series C brought total funding to roughly $1.4 billion.
Los Angeles-based Slauson & Co confirmed to TechCrunch that it also participated in the round.
Slate’s Amazon-Heavy Bench
Despite Bezos’s distance, Slate remains heavily populated by Amazon alumni.
The startup was co-founded by former Amazon Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke.
In March, Slate replaced Barman as chief executive with Peter Faricy, the former Amazon Marketplace VP who later served as CEO of Discovery’s direct-to-consumer business and SunPower Corporation.
Barman transitioned to President of Vehicles.
Several of Slate’s divisions are led by former Amazon employees.
The startup has also been recruiting aggressively from its rivals.
Slate hired Adam Backhaut as Senior Manufacturing Leader this week, bringing nearly 15 years of manufacturing experience across General Motors, Lucid Motors, and Ford.
The company poached Lucid’s former Head of North America Sales on April 24, marking the second senior departure from the Saudi-backed Lucid to Slate in a short window.
Production Timeline
Slate‘s two-seat electric pickup is priced in the mid-$20,000s — revised upward from an originally promoted sub-$20,000 target after Congress and the Trump administration eliminated the federal EV tax credit last September.
The vehicle uses a single rear-mounted 150-kilowatt motor, rear-wheel drive, and no built-in infotainment system — choices the company says protect against rapid component obsolescence and keep prices down.
It can be converted into an SUV through post-production customisation.
The Warsaw, Indiana facility — a former printing plant — is targeted to receive nearly $400 million in investment and create more than 2,000 jobs.
At full production, the factory is expected to produce up to 150,000 trucks annually.
The startup plans to sell exclusively in the United States at launch, and has indicated Canada is not currently on its roadmap.
