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Robyn Denholm Takes Over the Reigns of Tesla From Elon Musk (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the there's-a-new-sheriff-in-town dept.

azcoyote shares a report from Reuters: Tesla director Robyn Denholm, a telecoms executive who has worked for Toyota, has been promoted to chairwoman of the electric car company, tasked with regulating billionaire Elon Musk's regime after months of turbulence. An Australian accountant, Denholm is currently finance chief at telecoms firm Telstra and replaces Musk after he was forced to relinquish the role as part of a deal to head off charges of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While she will resign from Telstra to take the role full-time, some analysts expressed concern that she may not be clearly enough removed from Musk to rein in the billionaire's public outbursts and bring more order to Tesla. Denholm, 55, has been an independent director of Tesla since 2014 and the head of its audit committee. She was paid almost $5 million, mainly in stock options, by the company last year, making her the highest remunerated of its board members. "I personally hope Denholm renames it Reynholm Industries," Slashdot reader azcoyote adds.

21 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. taking over the reins by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's Reins, guys. That expression originates with what you have to control a horse.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:taking over the reins by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

      That's Reins, guys. That expression originates with what you have to control a horse.

      Thank you. When I saw "reigns", I thought I was going to have to explain it yet again.

      FYI, editors, you don't appear to be doing your job when silly shit like this gets past you regularly.

      And, FYI submitters, you don't look smarter by using phrases that you don't understand....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:taking over the reins by RockDoctor · · Score: 2
      I wondered if it was Slashdot's editors, or the original article. But the closest TFA comes to that phrase is "Whether she is independent enough to rein in public outbursts by Musk" - which is correct, even if you don't know which end of the horse to insert the bit and attach the reins to.

      In slight defence of Slashdot's editor "BeauHD", the original submission had the error. But they still passed eyes over this before accepting it, which is almost as bad. My old redaktor (en_gb: editor) wouldn't have let me get away with this sort of stuff, and he wasn't even a native English speaker. Though I'd hardly call his native Norway a "third world" country. Britain, maybe. But he'll be leaving with Brexit.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    3. Re:taking over the reins by azcoyote · · Score: 2

      Haha, to be honest I typed the headline quickly because I knew I had to get back to actual work at some point. But seriously, if I had spelled it correctly, I would've gotten a lot fewer comments. Typos FTW.

      --
      Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
  2. "Takes Over the Reigns of Tesla" by Chuq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Takes Over the Reigns of Tesla" - falsely implying that Elon is no longer running the company on a day to day basis? No need for clickbait headlines like this.

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    - Chuq
    1. Re:"Takes Over the Reigns of Tesla" by sexconker · · Score: 2, Informative

      Plus there are deep pockets than want low latency intercontinental bandwidth that only a LEO network can achieve (fiber is much slower than vacuum.)

      Typical glass fiber gets you about 0.7c. The BEST case scenario is going half way around the planet.

      About 12450 miles on the ground, or the equivalent of 17785 miles at full c.
      About 13706 miles at a 400 mile high orbit, + 400 miles up from Earth and 400 back down = 14506, assuming full c.

      14506 / 17785 = Just 18.5% savings for the BEST case scenario, assuming no additional delay getting stuff up and down beyond the 400 mile distance, and assuming the satellite network and transmission up to it and down from it all occur at full c. The average case is only 14% savings. And that's only on transmission time, not processing time. 18 ms savings going halfway around the world.

      Do you really want that 18 ms savings? The smarter, cheaper, and easierthing to do is to use terrestrial radio links. Alternatively, for short distances or long straight runs you can use more expensive hollow core fiber (still much cheaper than a swarm of satellites, however).

    2. Re:"Takes Over the Reigns of Tesla" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Your numbers are all fucked up. You can't use a theoretical "great circle" fiber because that doesn't exist in the real world. Real fiber is much longer due to geography, politics and other crap. And yes, "assume" full c, because that's what you get. Also, your altitude is wrong; try 210 mi.

      This has been credibly simulated, video here. London-Singapore is 90 ms by satellite, 159 ms terrestrial. That delta means high speed traders are obligated to use the system. Elon will have a license to print money.

      Learn something, before you spout off again.

  3. Just delete Elon's twitter account by bug_hunter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, that would have fixed 90% of the stuff that got him into trouble.
    There's still serious questions about working conditions, but that's not what's getting them into trouble.

    --
    It's turtles all the way down.
  4. Reins already by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Informative

    Reigns - what that German woman with the gold hat does.
    Reins - things for steering a horse.
    Rains - what it does in Manchester all the sodding time.

    There are minerals smarter than some folk.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Reins already by mkoenecke · · Score: 4, Informative

      Thank you. That (along with "lose" always being spelled with an extra "o" - where in the world did that come from?) is one of my pet peeves. It's "free rein," not "free reign!"* Even though the latter does, at least, make a certain amount of sense. * No, I do not care how many Google hits each particular spelling gets. The original expression is "free rein," and refers to allowing a horse to go wherever it wants.

      --
      TANSTAAFL
  5. Re:Reynholm Industries by balbeir · · Score: 2

    Do you speak Italian?

  6. Re:Reynholm Industries by bakes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't think any explanation would help if you can't even click on the link.

    --
    Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
  7. Re:So, we know the fate of Tesla now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    PepsiCo -> Indra K. Nooyi -> doubled income
    ADM -> Patricia Woertz -> record high profitability
    Sunoco -> Lynn L. Elsenhans -> increased value 52%

  8. hmm. Hopevully, no real changes by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Telstra has the same reputation as Comcast, Century Link, etc. IOW, they are a junk company. While Tesla has issues, they continually address them, and make things better. The Customer Service that we have had at Littleton (and denver's) service center has blown away what my wife got from Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Honda, and Toyota. The thought of cvustomer service becoming WORSE than these is bothersome.

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  9. Re:That's not much of a change by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's a precedent for this and it suggests this could be outrageously successful. Christian Bale played a character called "Bateman" in American Psycho. He then played "Batman" in some very popular DC movies in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Again, same name with letters (well, a letter) removed.

    On this basis, I'd say someone going from Telstra to Tesla could be very successful, as long as the moving of the "L" doesn't upset anything.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  10. Re:So, we know the fate of Tesla now by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

    HP is Fiorina's fault, no question about that, but Mayer took over a sinking ship - Yahoo has been described as "Beleaguered" longer than Apple was.

    Plus, you know, there are plenty of examples of great female business heads. Fuck, even actress Jessica Alba has managed to build a multibillion dollar corporation from scratch by selling organic diapers. Meanwhile half the electorate - including the kinds of people who whine about feeeeeeeeemale business heads - are going giddy over a male businessman whose main claim to fame is a string of business failures propped up by an inherited real estate empire and a lot of outright fraud.

    So, uh, maybe that wasn't a great point to bring up on your part.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  11. Re:"Reins", dammit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Horses? That's the things they use to make car engines, right?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  12. Re:That's not much of a change by azcoyote · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wonderful! If she keeps going at this rate, pretty soon she'll be working for the TSA.

    --
    Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
  13. Re:RIP Tesla by DanDD · · Score: 2

    Please provide citations to substantiate your assertion that any Tesla factory is failing to perform, or that Tesla has hired bad people.

    From the 30 seconds of investigation I've found, Tesla does seem to be meeting production targets, although it has taken longer than anticipated. Tesla's production targets have always been very aggressive:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/j...

    Tesla does seem to be succeeding where many short sellers have been predicting failure.

    The production facility in a giant tent in the parking lot was the idea of a Tesla engineer. That gentleman was recently promoted because his idea is paying off.

    Elon has also personally hired the engineers at SpaceX, so he does seem to be doing something right in building and managing a good team, so your comment is a little confusing.

    Are you sure you aren't just a bitter short-seller? I see that TSLA hit 355 today, nearing it's all time high. So whatever you think about Tesla's failures in CEO management and hiring, the market seems to be rather happy with Tesla overall.

    --
    "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
  14. Re:Reynholm Industries by Kelerei · · Score: 2

    Can someone explain me the joke about Reynholm Industries?

    Not sure, but I was strangely aroused by the link's intro:

    "Reynholm Industries: a big hard business in a big hard building. Thrusting into the future strongly. Again and again. Pounding into the future, making the future beg for it. The future wants it, and Reynholm Industries wants to give it to the future..."

    Red balls for all.

    But that's just the type of place it is. A lot of sexy people not doing much work... and having affairs.

    It's also notable for its IT department, consisting of a genius, a dynamic go-getter and a man from Ireland.

  15. Re: RIP Tesla by mcvos · · Score: 2

    Musk clearly has a talent for running innovative tech companies. He just needs someone to stop him from picking fights with the internet and investors, and get back to making more cars/rockets/solar panels.

    I think this is a positive development.