FX.co ★ 5 ex-Tesla executives with stunning careers

Sterling Anderson, co-founder of Aurora Innovation

Sterling Anderson joined Tesla in 2013. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His first project was the Tesla Model X SUV. Later on, Sterling Anderson led the team dealing with autopilot technologies. However, three years later, he left the company and founded his own firm, Aurora Innovation. He launched the production of self-driving cars. The gifted engineer teamed up with Chris Urmson, an ex-Google executive responsible for the self-driving car design, and Drew Bagnell, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University who focuses on artificial intelligence. As a result, Aurora Innovation raised $1 billion in investments. Later, in December 2020, the company acquired Uber's automated driving unit. After the deal, the market worth of the Silicon Valley startup expanded to $10 billion.

Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies

In 2004, Gene Berdichevsky was employed at Tesla as a tech leader for battery system architectural development. This project was meant for the Roadster model. By that time, Berdichevsky dove into new technologies for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries to reduce production costs. The engineer left Tesla in 2008 and founded his own unicorn startup, Sila Nano, in 2011. Later, his company created a silicon anode that could replace expensive graphite in batteries. Berdichevsky believes this material increases the efficiency of batteries by 20% without a significant increase in cost. The Sila Nano attracted $930 million from investors. No wonder, the rapidly growing startup was valued at $3.3 billion and obtained funds for the first large production facility which is scheduled to be launched in 2024.

Henrik Fisker, co-founder and CEO of Fisker Inc.

By the time of his cooperation with Tesla, Henrik Fisker had already earned the reputation as a well-known automotive designer. He created a 007 BMW Z8 convertible roadster car that was featured in the 1999 James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. Besides, he also served as design director at Martin Aston. In 2008, Fisker advised Elon Musk on the Model S project. However, Tesla chief did not approve of his layouts and filed a lawsuit against the designer, charging him with espionage. The court ruled in favor of Henrik Fisker who abandoned Tesla Motors and founded his own startup, Fisker Automotive. The first project of the entrepreneur with this company was the Fisker Karma, a luxury plug-in hybrid sports sedan. However, that e-car has never gone into mass production due to various problems. In 2021, Henrik Fisker made a successful comeback in the industry. Running another company, Fisker Inc., he rolled out an array of mass-market all-electric SUVs Ocean with price tags starting from $37,500. Experts say that such models can withstand competition with Tesla Model Y. At present, the market capitalization of Fisker Inc. is worth $4 billion. $1 billion of this value was raised from investors for development.

Peter Rowlinson, co-founder and CEO of Lucid Motors

Peter Rowlinson had obtained vast experience at Jaguar Cars and Lotus Cars before he joined Tesla Motors in 2009. During his long cooperation with Elon Musk, the British automotive designer developed innovative technologies as a vehicle engineer. Peter Rowlinson was in charge of the technical execution and delivery of the Tesla Model S, launched in 2012. Nevertheless, he had to leave the company later. Nowadays, he manages his own startup, Lucid Motors headquartered in Newark, California. The company manufactures electric vehicles. Saudi Arabia invested $1.3 billion in Lucid Motors to manufacture posh fully electric Air sedans. The cherry on the cake is that an Air Lucid is capable of running more than 800 km without recharging its battery. It is priced at $169,000. According to Peter Rowlinson, Lucid Motors does not compete with Tesla. “I would say our main competitor is a car company; I highlight Mercedes Benz in terms of the attributes of Lucid Air,” he pointed out.

Jeffrey Brian Straubel, c-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials

J.B. Straubel is one of Tesla Motors’ co-founders. Since the company’s inauguration, he served as a chief technical officer until 2019. Sharing Elon Musks’ values, he was responsible for manufacturing e-cars with an eye to technologies reducing harmful emissions. Later, the entrepreneur established the startup, Redwood Materials which produces materials for ion-lithium batteries out of recycled batteries. In September 2020, the company attracted $40 million in investments and entered into joint recycling projects with Panasonic and Amazon. J.B. Straubel’s activity is focused on the struggle with environmental pollution which is the culprit of climate change. The net wealth of ex-Tesla executive measures $1 billion. According to Forbes’ estimates, this figure includes the shares which he purchased being at the board of QuantumScape, a battery manufacturing company. Interestingly, Microsoft chief Bill Gates used to be one of its investors.