Even with Tesla’s poor stock performance and CEO Elon Musk split between running an electric vehicle company and side political jobs, Board Chair Robyn Denholm has quietly worked her lucrative job to over $680 million for herself, while investors grow concerned about the company’s future.
The Australian executive, who has served as Tesla board chair since Musk stepped down from the role in 2018 after running afoul of the SEC, has been conducting frequent sales of high volumes of Tesla shares since early December, amounting to ~$150 million worth to date, most recently netting Weiland a $32 million sale on April 29, 2025. The constant selling is a striking contrast to the confidence she projects publicly on the prospects for the company.
Hand-Selected Chair Faces Rising Scrutiny
Seven years ago when Musk chose Denholm to run Tesla’s board, she was a relatively unknown former accountant from Australia. Since then, she has turned her job into one of the most lucrative roles in corporate America for a board chairman, collecting total compensation of about $682 million, according to a Reuters analysis of regulatory filings.
“It’s Robyn and the board’s job to keep this guy’s feet to the fire, and they’re not,” said Michael R. Levin, a Tesla shareholder in Chicago. His frustration reflects the feelings of countless investors that Denholm hasn’t done enough to rein in Musk, who currently balances his time between Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and two other companies, not to mention running President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The Timing Raises Eyebrows
The huge stock sales come as Tesla is confronting a host of challenges. The company said on Thursday that during the first three months of 2025, it had revenue totaling $19.34 billion, compared with analyst estimates of $21.11 billion, and reported a 71 percent drop in net income, to $409 million. Shares of Tesla have fallen 13 percent since the November 2024 elections to $184.76 in March 2025.
Through those headwinds, Denholm has publicly stood by Musk. When the Wall Street Journal wrote in early May that Tesla’s board had retained executive search firms as a precursor to finding a replacement for Musk, Denholm hit up X (Musk’s unserious social media platform) to note the report was outright “false” and that the board was “highly confident” nonetheless in his genius.
Many Hats, Little Supervision
Critics say, her far-flung outside commitments are proof of her divided attention. Apart from chairing Tesla, she has extensive business interests in Australia, including personal property investments, ownership of the Sydney WNBL team and a number of technology ventures.
“It is concerning that she would have these other obligations in Australia,” said Levin, the Chicago-based shareholder. Recent events have raised questions about whether Denholm is dialing back some of these gigs: The tech industry group announced March 12 that she would step down as chair by the end of the month.
A History of Well-Paying Board Seats
Denholm’s development from corporate finance executive to board chair extraordinaire reflects a wider movement in corporate governance. Previously she had been CFO of telecom and networking companies, as well as with Sun Microsystems, Toyota Australia and Arthur Andersen, where she offered her financial acumen to Tesla during a critical juncture in the company’s development.
But questions about director pay have haunted Tesla’s board for years. In 2022, a group of shareholders successfully sued Tesla board members over “excessive” compensation, leading to a settlement in which directors returned nearly $1 billion to the company.
Crisis in the Present and Prospects for the future
As Tesla contends with growing competition in the electric vehicle market, tardy product roadmaps and skepticism about its shift to autonomous driving and robotics, Denholm is under intensifying pressure to show that her board can exercise independent oversight.
“There is a charismatic, fundamentals-breaking Musk post-Musk in the universe that is going to keep the stock up even at the same time that Tesla cannot really sell the number of cars it is selling,” wrote one industry analyst, emphasizing the particularly difficult position Tesla’s board is in when looking for leadership alternatives.
Investors haven’t overlooked the contrast between the 15-day time frame for Denholm’s regular stock sales — which now exceed $500 million dating back to 2014 — and the troubles now facing the company. “She will be remembered as the one who had the best shot to stop Musk from killing the Tesla brand and did nothing” Fred Lambert, Editor-in-Chief at Electrek.
But with Denholm getting ready to run for re-election to the board next year, the key issue for Tesla’s governance is still her ability to remain loyal to the CEO who named her while being accountable to shareholders. With new shareholders increasingly demanding the board take a harder line governing Musk — including over his tweets — and calling for independent directors, Denholm’s term isn’t up for a vote again until 2026, and she maintains the support of Musk and his allies to keep her seat secure.
Balancing Act
The dilemma underscores the existential question in corporate oversight: How is a board chair supposed to provide independent oversight when his or her very job often depends on being chummy with a powerful chief executive? For Denholm, the balancing act has meant extraordinary compensation – she’s a spiritual successor in many ways to her former boss – as the company has faced withering criticism that Tesla has, in fact, lacked real board supervision at a time when it needed it most.
As Tesla transitions from an early electric vehicle upstart into what Musk has said he hopes will become an AI and robotics company, the company’s board leadership becomes even more important. Whether Denholm can evolve from an enabler in the eyes of critics into an effective check against the abuse of executive power may decide not only her own legacy but also the future of one of the world’s most valuable and controversial companies.
The next several months should be telling for both Denholm and Tesla, as shareholders continue to consider whether a dose of continuity is more attractive than more active scrutiny from the board. Now, with board elections on the near horizon and Tesla’s market position in dizzying flux, the question again looms: Can the world’s highest-paid board chair transition into the independent leader that Tesla needs to carry it through its next phase?