Tesla's Vice President Sreela Venkataratnam, who has been with the automaker for over a decade, has stepped down from her role. Venkataratnam, one of the only two female vice presidents at the company, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post earlier this week. While praising Tesla for its remarkable growth, she noted that working there is "not for the faint of heart."
During her tenure, Venkataratnam witnessed Tesla's transformation into a $700 billion global leader in electric vehicles. "Leaving as a Vice President (one of only two women VPs in the company) with annual revenues soaring close to $100 billion, market cap to $700 billion (reaching $1 trillion during the pandemic), and cars delivered in a year to more than 1.8 million, I am proud of how much we’ve achieved together," she wrote.
Venkataratnam also responded to congratulatory comments from Tesla's former CFO Jason Wheeler, who acknowledged the challenges of working at the company. In her reply, she reiterated that Tesla’s demanding work environment is "definitely not for the faint of heart."
Her resignation adds to a growing list of senior executives who have left Tesla in recent months. Drew Baglino, the Senior VP of Powertrain and Electrical Engineering, stepped down earlier this year after an 18-year stint with the company. Rohan Patel, Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development, also departed around the same time.
Rich Otto, Tesla's former Head of Product Launches, echoed similar sentiments when he left the company during a round of mass layoffs. In a LinkedIn post, Otto described Tesla as a company he loved but admitted that it "has also taken its pound of flesh." He noted that recent layoffs had disrupted the company's balance between its people and products, making it difficult to envision the long-term future.
In April, Tesla cut more than 10 per cent of its workforce as part of a broader strategy to reduce costs. CEO Elon Musk highlighted that the company needed to be "absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction" to remain competitive in a challenging market.