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Tesla’s global finance head is leaving the company

Tesla’s global finance head is leaving the company

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Justin McAnear, the VP of worldwide finance and operations, will step down in October

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Justin McAnear, Tesla’s vice president of worldwide finance and operations, is leaving the company. McAnear originally came to Tesla from Apple’s finance team in 2015. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

“Several weeks ago, I announced to my team that I would be leaving Tesla because I had the chance to take a CFO role at another company,” McAnear said in a statement to The Verge. “I’ve truly loved my time at Tesla, and I have great respect for my colleagues and the work they do, but this was simply an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Any other speculation as to why I’ve left is simply inaccurate. I’ve been working with the team to ensure a smooth transition prior to my last day on October 7th, and a number of members of the team are stepping up to fill my role.”

Tesla employs tens of thousands of people, and many executives have come and gone in the company’s 15-year history. But recent departures have come under intense scrutiny because of the company’s well-documented production struggles, financial quagmires, and the unpredictable actions of CEO Elon Musk.

News of McAnear’s imminent departure comes just days after Dave Morton, Tesla’s chief accounting officer, resigned following less than one month on the job. Tesla’s former head of HR, Gabrielle Toledano, also left the company on the same day as Morton — as did the company’s VP of communications. Around 30 other executives have left the company since June.

Tesla’s lost a lot of executives over the years, but some recent departures have stood out

While Musk has promised that recently increased production of the Model 3 sedan has put the company on track to be profitable going forward, a number of financial analysts believe Tesla is not making enough profit to keep up its heavy pace of spending, at least not without eventually raising more money. Musk didn’t make things any easier by spending most of August exploring — and then abandoning — a suddenly announced plan to take the company private.

A particular focus has been laid on Morton’s resignation, not only because of how quickly it happened, but also because he reportedly felt his attempts to reason with Musk on the privatization plan were ignored. Romit Shah, a previously bullish Tesla analyst, called the company “no longer investable” in a note this week and said that Morton’s resignation “hit close to home.”

McAnear’s departure isn’t as abrupt as Morton’s was, but even at best, it means Tesla’s chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja now has one more role to fill underneath him. The already-long to-do list for shoring up Tesla’s financial situation just got longer.