Omead Afshar, a powerful executive at Tesla Inc. and one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants, has left the company, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest high-level departure during a volatile period for the electric vehicle maker.
News of the exit has circulated internally among some employees in recent days, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal information. Afshar’s name no longer appeared to show up in an internal directory, two of the people said. The reason for the change and his future plans weren’t immediately clear.
Some of the directors who reported to Afshar now report to Tom Zhu, Tesla’s senior vice president of automotive, according to some of the people. The Chinese-born executive oversees Tesla’s factory in Shanghai and is one of the company’s three named executive officers.
