Musk, the world's richest man, first earned widespread fame by making Tesla one of the biggest EV manufacturers in the world. More recently, Musk has veered into politics with his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is using what some regard as brutal methods to shrink the federal workforce. Musk is part of Trump's second administration and often makes public appearances at the White House—while also running five other companies plus Tesla, which is the only publicly-traded one and by far the biggest. How does he find the time?
The answer is he has long relied on trusted lieutenants. You can scroll directly to the chart below, but note one top Musk aide is Omead Afshar, a former ski instructor who has worked for Tesla for more than six years and lists his most recent position as “office of the CEO.” Afshar oversaw construction of Gigafactory Texas and moved to SpaceX in late 2022, where he’s working on the Starship deep-space rocket. There’s also Tom Zhu, whose leadership has helped make Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai an essential part of the company’s global strategy. Charles Kuehmann, the former director of product design at Apple, works for both Tesla and SpaceX, where he is currently VP, materials engineering. He is credited with helping develop the steel alloy used for Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck.
