Looking Ahead to Tesla’s Annual Shareholder Meeting

Tesla has its next annual shareholder meeting coming up next month, and many investors are already considering what to expect at the event. Held with a limited in-person capacity at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas, most will take part online in a public livestream event.

Above: A Tesla logo on a Model Y (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

The next Tesla shareholder’s meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, and will let investors vote on five different proposals, as reported by Yahoo Finance. The proposals include one investor proposal, votes on executive compensation, a new candidate for board membership and more.

You can see the proposals detailed below, as were recently disclosed in a filing and reported on by Yahoo Finance.

Tesla Board of Directors Nomination

Tesla has nominated former CTO JB Straubel to succeed Board of Directors Class I director Hiromichi Mizuno, whose term is running out and who will not be seeking re-election. Straubel is the founder and CEO of battery recycling company Redwood Materials, which has an ongoing partnership with Tesla. He worked as the company’s CTO for 14 years and has had a relationship with Elon Musk since before joining Tesla. Shareholders will vote to approve or deny Straubel’s nomination.

In addition, Board chair Robyn Denholm and Musk are up for re-election.

Frequency of Non-Binding Vote on Executive Compensation

Tesla shareholders will vote on how often they want a non-binding advisory vote on executive officer compensation, choosing between one-, two- and three-year cycles. The Board has officially recommended a three-year cycle.

Executive Compensation

Shareholders must approve or deny a recently proposed compensation plan for Tesla’s four executive officers. Tesla’s executive officers include Musk, Tom Zhu, Andrew Baglino and Zachary Kirkhorn.

Investor Proposal on Reporting on Key-Person Risk

Iceland investor Sumtris ehf has put forward this proposal, which looks to identify significant people, succession processes and other "actions to ameliorate the impacts of their potential loss." The proposal comes amidst concerns over Musk’s leadership, who leads Tesla and a number of other companies, most recently including Twitter.

Tesla recommends voting against this measure, adding that it’s approval "would cause unnecessary competitive harm."

Appointment of Independent Registered Public Accounting Team

Lastly, Tesla has requested that investors vote to continue using PriceWaterhouseCoopers as the company’s auditor for 2023 financial statements. According to Tesla, PWC has been auditing the company’s financials for 17 years.

Tesla held its previous annual shareholders' meeting on August 4, 2022 at Giga Texas, during which investors voted in favor of another stock split, among other proposals. In 2021, the automaker held its annual shareholder meeting on October 7, as an online-only event. Tesla’s shareholder meetings typically last around an hour to an hour and a half, also including Q&A sessions in which investors can ask their own questions to the company’s leaders.

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