In March, after a sharp drop in Tesla’s () stock price, he told employees: “Hold their shares.”
Tesla’s chairman Robyn Denholm did not follow the board. Denholm has earned $ 198 million in the last six months selling Tesla shares that she received for serving on the board, according to an analysis of the New York Times About securities records.
This raises its total profit by selling Tesla shares to more than $ 530 million since becoming the leader of the board in late 2018, much more than their peers won in the most valuable US companies during this period, shows the analysis.
Set sales raise questions about Denholm’s confidence from Tesla’s perspectives. His latest sales, executed under a pre-arranged negotiation plan in the middle of last year, occurred while Musk, the company’s CEO, took a long-time role in the Trump administration. Tesla’s car sales fell in part because Musk’s political activities dismissed some car buyers. The company’s quarterly profit fell in the first three months of 2025 to its lowest level in four years.
Denholm gained the right to buy these shares, known as stock options, by working on the board, a position of half period. Tesla granted the options between 2014 and 2020, and its stock price has shot since, giving deholm the right to buy shares for a much lower value than its current price. Last week, for example, she bought more than 112,000 shares for $ 24.73 each and sold them on the same day for more than $ 270.
“Understanding your actions does not send the message that this is a chairman who is invested in the future of the company,” said New York City controller Brad Lander, who supervises the city’s five public pension funds. In March, these funds held more than 3 million Tesla shares, valued at the time at approximately US $ 817 million.
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A spokesman for Denholm said Tesla paid the board members in a way that was “completely aligned with the interests of shareholders.”
“The reason why Tesla’s directors increased is because Tesla exceeded her industry peers and created excessive returns for company owners, shareholders,” he said in a statement.
The stock options, which for years have been most of the compensation of Tesla directors, are only valuable if the company’s stock price rise, as happened with Tesla. Those who exercise their options to buy business stocks can sell or maintain their new shares.
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Donholm sold more than 1.4 million Tesla shares and continues to maintain 85,000 of them and about 49,000 stock options, according to the analysis of the Times. The equilate, a compensation consulting firm, has revised the methodology. Her latest wave of stock sales was carried out under the plan she placed moving in July, just after Musk supported Donald Trump for the presidency.
Under securities, executives and other insiders regulations can use such plans to negotiate shares in their companies. They are not required to disclose many details of their plans, including the reason for them or the conditions under which the actions will be sold. They also have a lot of freedom to cancel the plans.
Native to Australia and technology executive veteran, Donholm maintained a low profile and rarely speaks publicly about Tesla or Musk. She was recruited to Tesla’s board in 2014 and appointed president in 2018, after Musk agreed to move away from position as part of an agreement with the Securities Commission.
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She and other board members were criticized by some investors, activists and a delaware judge for not serving as counterweight to Musk, which is widely seen as bold and impulsive. Tesla directors were also criticized for not ensuring that he remained focused on Tesla.
“Musk operates as if he were supervising from the board,” wrote Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick from the Delaware Chancellery Court last year, when he decided in favor of a shareholder who challenged the 2018 musk payment package, valued at about $ 56 billion. McCormick, in this decision, described Deholm’s supervision style about Musk as “sloppy.”
Tesla appealed from the decision, which annulled the musk payment package, and Donholm contested McCormick’s criticism.
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“Anyone who knows me knows I’m not sloppy, now that I know what this word means,” Donholm told Financial Times last year. “It’s probably the opposite of the truth. I’m really intense and very diligent in what I do.”
During the judgment of the payment of Musk, Donholm described the money he made with his service on the Tesla Council as a “life transformer.” The payment of Tesla directors was subject to a separate court case that Denholm and other board members resolved by 2023.
Denholm’s first sales under his recent negotiation plan took place in November, the week after the presidential election, while Tesla’s stock price was rising. The actions reached a new record a few weeks later in December. She continued to sell until early May, while the company faced a reaction from consumers due to musk political activities and the stock price fell.
The shares are now about 34% below your peak after recovering some of your losses in recent weeks.
Musk recognized Tesla’s difficulties during a meeting with the company’s employees in March. “If you read the news, it looks like, you know, it’s Armageddon,” he said a little joking.
He continued to advise workers not to sell their actions, saying that Tesla would become the most valuable company in the world as it perfected autonomous taxis and robots that look like and moved as humans. “The future is incredibly brilliant,” he said.
Denholm sales surpassed those of other Tesla directors except Musk, who remained on the board after departing from the presidency.
She and other current and old members of the Tesla board agreed to resolve a shareholders’ lawsuit about their payments by 2023, collectively agreing to return compensation from $ 735 million. They denied any irregularity. Action options valued at more than $ 130 million were canceled on May 1 to satisfy Denholm’s obligations under this agreement, show securities records.
The members of the Board agreed in June 2021, after the judicial process was presented, to resign new action concessions.
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