Elon Musk uses Twitter wisely, new Tesla chair says
The new chair of Tesla said that its chief executive Elon Musk uses Twitter “wisely”, in an interview today.
“Twitter is part of everyday business for many executives today,” Robyn Denholm told Bloomberg, “From my perspective, he uses it wisely.”
Musk faced heat from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after tweeting in August that he had secured funding to take the public company private, sending its shares soaring.
Read more: Elon Musk's lawyers call SEC contempt order 'retaliation' and 'censorship'
In July, Musk used Twitter to accuse a British diver involved in the rescue of a youth football team from a Thai cave system of being a paedophile after the diver criticised a mini-submarine Musk had offered to help with the rescue.
The diver is reportedly taking legal action against Musk for defamation.
Denholm succeeded Musk as Tesla chair in November after Musk stepped down as part of a settlement with the SEC following his “funding secured” tweet.
Read more: Regulator accuses Elon Musk of misleading investors with new Tesla tweet
Last month the SEC asked a judge to hold him in contempt of their settlement arguing that a February tweet about vehicle production was misleading and breached the SEC’s order related to Tesla’s communications.
Musk said he was exercising his right to free speech and a court date has been set for 4 April to hear whether Musk should be held in contempt.
“We believe we’ve done everything that we need to do under the settlement, but obviously it’s going to the court and it will go from there,” Denholm said.
Denholm was a director of Tesla before being appointed chair.
She said she did not think Tusk presented any particular corporate governance difficulties.
“I don’t think he poses any challenges,” she said. “The company is running very well and the board itself is very engaged. We meet with him all the time.”