The meteoric rise of Tesla's new CFO Vaibhav Taneja

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Vaibhav Taneja, American electric vehicle maker Tesla's new chief financial officer, is the latest India-born executive to take up a key leadership role at a marquee global corporation. On Monday, Tesla named Taneja, an alumnus of Delhi University, after Zachery Kirkhorn, who was famously described as 'Master of Coin' by founder Elon Musk, stepped down following a 13-year stint at the company. The 45-year-old's appointment comes at a time when Tesla is reviving its plans to enter India, where Musk in June said the company was looking to invest «as soon as humanly possible». Taneja joined Tesla in 2017 as an assistant corporate controller, and was promoted to its corporate controller and, in March 2019, to chief accounting officer. He will continue to be the company's chief accounting officer, along with holding the new role of the CFO.

After his graduation from Delhi University, Taneja did his CA articleship at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India during 1996-99 and continued there in audit practice till 2003 when he moved to the US. Taneja worked with PwC US till 2016. He later joined SolarCity, a solar energy systems company that Tesla acquired a year later. He serves on the boards of several Tesla units.«He was a very nice and bright youngster. So, he was sent to PwC US on an exchange programme. He then decided to stay back,» said Sivarama Krishnan, leader — risk consulting at PwC India who had worked with him in the audit practice. PwC India chairman Sanjeev Krishan said Taneja's elevation at Tesla is «a moment of pride not only for all of us at PwC where he has spent a large part of his career, but also for India as a talent