Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corp., and Wilson-Thompson, global chief human resources officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., join a board under order by the Securities and Exchange Commission to increase its governance and oversight measures. The mandate follows Elon Musk’s claims in August to have the funding and investor support for a buyout. Subsequently, the chief executive officer in November relinquished the role of chairman, and he and the company each agreed to pay $20 million in SEC penalties.
The additions to the board end a months-long distraction that at one point looked like it could cost Musk his future with the company. While reining him in may prove challenging, Ellison and Wilson-Thompson will help steer a carmaker that’s made significant strides in profitably making and delivering electric vehicles.
Tesla’s shares rose 1.3% to $320.26 at 10:11 a.m. in New York after earlier gaining as much as 6%. The stock was up 1.5% this year through the Thursday close.
Past Praise
Ellison, 74, went off-script during an Oracle meeting with analysts in October to announce he had been building a personal stake in Tesla and that it was his second-largest holding. He criticized how the media had covered Musk, 47, whom he called a close friend.
“This guy is landing rockets,” Ellison said in October of Musk, who also runs Space Exploration Technologies Corp. “You know, he’s landing rockets on robot drone rafts in the ocean. And you’re saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Well, who else is landing rockets? You ever land a rocket on a robot drone? Who are you?”
Tesla, in its statement announcing Ellison would be joining the board, said he bought 3 million shares of the electric-car maker earlier this year.
Tesla’s board now has 11 members, including three women. This fall, California became the first U.S. state to mandate that publicly traded companies have women on their boards. Those with at least seven directors need to have at least three women by 2021.
‘Funding Secured’
The SEC moved to punish Tesla and Musk because it alleged he committed fraud by tweeting that he had the “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share. The agency said this and other claims the CEO made on Aug. 7 were false and misleading and affected Tesla’s stock.
Musk and Tesla reached the settlement with the SEC on Sept. 29 that gave the company 90 days to add directors and take other actions. Since then, the CEO has publicly lampooned the agency and bristled at the notion that he’ll change his Twitter habits.
Tesla’s legal department also has been going through shakeups since Musk’s run-in with the SEC.
The company earlier this month tapped Dane Butswinkas to become general counsel. Butswinkas is the Washington trial lawyer who represented Musk in his legal battle with the SEC and represented him through two divorces. At Tesla, he’ll replace Todd Maron, who’s leaving in January after five years.
In November, Phil Rothenberg, a vice president on Tesla’s legal staff, left to became general counsel at Sonder, a hospitality startup. Rothenberg previously worked at the SEC.