Tesla‘s Chair Robyn Denholm defended in a new interview on Tuesday that the shareholder vote on Musk’s pay package is more about his voting power than the potential size of his compensation.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Denholm reiterated that Elon Musk “gets nothing if he doesn’t perform against the pretty audacious milestones” in the package plan.
“For me, it really is about making sure that investors understand that, that they actually get paid if he hits the milestone before he will,” the Chairwoman stated, before adding that “it is about voting influence.”
According to Denholm, the CEO has been “very public” about wanting voting control.
Last week, Musk said he needed “enough voting control to give a strong influence, but not so much that I can’t be fired if I go insane.”
In a new letter sent to investors on Monday, Denholm urged them to approve Elon Musk’s nearly performance-based compensation plan, warning that the company could lose him if it is rejected.
It was the third communication management has sent to shareholders in the past seven days, as the voting deadline approaches — with Tesla‘s Annual Meeting scheduled for November 6.
The statements came after the two largest proxy advisory firms announced they would vote against the compensation plan, echoing the same negative stance they took in 2024 and 2018 on similar issues.
On Tuesday, when asked whether Tesla has “a plan B, a different person stepping up” if Musk were to leave “if the vote is a no,” Denholm assured that the company is focused on explaining all the items on the shareholder agenda for the upcoming meeting.
The Chairwoman is currently in New York to meet with several institutional investors ahead of their vote.
She reaffirmed, however, that “there is no other person” as Elon Musk, stating that “he is the right leader for the company over this next decade in delivering the plan and the opportunities ahead of us.”
Denholm further added that Elon “is the right leader for us over this next decade.”
To Tesla‘s Chair, it is still soon to preview the outcome of the vote, as most shareholders “wait to the last minute to vote.”
“We’ll get a better sense as the votes come in. Some institutions are more public than others in terms of how they’re going to vote,” she noted.
Tesla is currently appealing to the Delaware Supreme Court after a lower court rescinded Elon Musk’s 2018 $56 billion pay package — and rejected a shareholder vote last year that was in favor of restoring it.
Questioned by Bloomberg on whether the whole case meant that the Board had to hold off on authorizing other investments, Denholm said that it didn’t.
She did state that “the Delaware situation was disruptive,” however, “not disruptive from a strategic point of view.”
