'Tesla CFO, Musk's Right Hand, Earned 780 Billion KRW After 4 Years'

Zachary Kirkhorn, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who was known as the right-hand man of Tesla CEO Elon Musk but recently left the company, reportedly earned 780 billion won over four years.

Bloomberg News reported this on the 9th, citing data it independently collected. Kirkhorn's compensation was mainly in Tesla stock and options.

Tesla announced on the 7th that Kirkhorn stepped down last week. The reason for the replacement was not disclosed.

Kirkhorn's compensation, excluding options with a net value of $550 million (723.5 billion won), was relatively modest. Last year, he received a base salary of $300,000 (400 million won) along with paid leave allowance of $31,099 (41 million won).

Kirkhorn is expected to continue working at Tesla until the end of this year to facilitate the handover of duties. His future plans have not been revealed.

Kirkhorn studied at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at Tesla for 13 years starting in 2010. Tesla is known as a company without a 'second-in-command,' but Kirkhorn was reportedly the de facto number two behind the scenes. Unlike other executives who left the company due to difficulty adapting to Musk's management style, he had excellent communication skills. Especially as CFO, he was involved in Tesla's overall operations and was once considered one of Musk's potential successors on Tesla's board of directors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.