Tesla Motors Names New CEO
29 November 2007
Tesla Motors has named Ze’ev Drori as its new CEO, replacing interim CEO Michael Marks who took over from co-founder Martin Eberhard in August. (Earlier post.)
Ze’ev is a successful high-tech entrepreneur and an experienced chief executive with the proven ability to create and manage companies with innovative products in both the high-tech and automotive sectors. He has more than 30 years of continual success and has demonstrated the ability to lead a company from conception to profitability, a public offering and thousands of employees.
The first company he founded was Monolithic Memories, a Silicon Valley semiconductor firm that pioneered fundamental advances in memory and logic technology, before being acquired by AMD in 1987. Under his leadership, Monolithic introduced programmable read-only memory (PROM) and programmable array logic (PAL), which revolutionized many aspects of computer and electronic systems technology. As CEO through 1981, Ze’ev was responsible for R&D, manufacturing, marketing, finance, world wide sales and overseas operations for product assembly. Ze’ev served as chairman of the board from 1981 through 1987.
After the sale of Monolithic Memories, Ze’ev purchased a controlling interest in Clifford Electronics, then a small start-up in auto security systems and the perfect combination of his twin passions for technology and automobiles. As chairman and CEO, he rapidly developed Clifford into the world’s leading automobile security company through significant innovations, such as remote control alarms, and distribution relationships with domestic and international car manufacturers as well as a network of thousands of retail dealers. In 1999, Z’ev sold Clifford Electronics to Allstate Insurance.
—Elon Musk, Chairman
Drori starts on 3 December.
I wish this guy luck. They need to start delivering on the pre-orders to keep their market edge.
Posted by: gr | 29 November 2007 at 10:09 AM
Good luck Tesla
Posted by: Elliot | 29 November 2007 at 07:18 PM
When the CEO's office has a revoling door it tells me something is very wrong with the company. The transition from the prototype stage to having products on the road is taking a long, long time.
Posted by: tom deplume | 30 November 2007 at 11:09 AM
A true ZEV mandate! :-)
Posted by: Roger Pham | 30 November 2007 at 12:28 PM
Correction; ZE'EV mandate: Zero-Emission EV. (vs. HEV, which is also an EV, but still produces exhaust emission.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 30 November 2007 at 12:32 PM
It is good news, Zeev , as Agassi (Former SAP and Betterplace.com) Are from the Israeli Hitec Risk taking
Breed. Hope that will push so that EV cars and infrastructure will evolve at 2008.
Posted by: ZR | 04 December 2007 at 05:25 AM
I hope they begin to make this happen soon.
Posted by: j.brown | 09 December 2007 at 03:58 AM