PALO ALTO, Calif. (Diya TV) — Tesla’s former chief financial officer is coming out of retirement and returning to the electric car manufacturer as it prepares for the release of its new Model 3 sedan.
The company announced Wednesday that current CFO Jason Wheeler, who first joined the company in 2015, will depart from the company in April to take up a job in the public sector. Wheeler will be replaced by Tesla’s first CFO, Deepak Ahuja, who held the position for seven years until retiring in 2015.
Wheeler previously served as Google’s vice president of finance for more than a decade before his arrival at Tesla.
Ahuja will formally assume control of the role in March, Wheeler will remain at the company until then. Tesla made the announcement in a blog post that coincided with the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report. “I’m looking to scratch an itch I’ve had for many many years now,” Wheeler said Wednesday during the company’s earnings call.
Wheeler added that he wouldn’t have felt comfortable about leaving Tesla if didn’t have a good plan in place for the company.
During his rather short tenure with the company, Wheeler helped lead the acquisition of SolarCity and prepared the company for the launch of its highly anticipated Model 3 sedan. He also helped lead the company to a profitable quarter last year, its first after 12 quarterly losses and only the second one in the company’s history.
Ahuja was once one of Tesla’s longest-serving executives and an important fixture as it grew and held its initial public offering in 2010 as well as rougher financial times. When Ahuja left the company, it was because he said he had other things on his bucket list to “check off.”
Here’s Ahuja on a panel discussion about unicorn companies hosted by fellow IIT Alumni:
