Investment Group Takes Aim at Tesla Corporate Governance

An investment group managing union pensions is turning its attention to corporate governance at Tesla Motors, calling on the automaker to add two independent directors and separate the roles of chairman and CEO currently held by Elon Musk. CtW Investment Group, which holds about 200,000 Tesla shares, also called on independent directors to carefully consider Tesla’s proposed $2.8 billion bid for SolarCity. Musk is also the largest shareholder in SolarCity, and some critics have complained that Tesla’s bid is a way to prop up the struggling solar panel vendor. The investment group, in a letter to the company, also called for a declassification of the board so shareholders can vote annually on every director, and a change in bylaws that would forbid immediate family members of directors to serve concurrently. Taking those steps, according to CtW, would allow Tesla to “to remedy its underlying governance deficiencies.”