EVwire brief: Christopher Ross, Tesla's Head of B2B, Government & Commercial, announced his departure from the company on LinkedIn, ending a two-and-a-half-year run that started in January 2024.
The exit comes just days after Tesla reported its best Q2 ever, with 480,126 deliveries, up 25% year over year and roughly 74,000 units ahead of Wall Street's consensus estimate. Christopher said the timing has nothing to do with the numbers.
I'm stepping away for a period of health, family, and self-care. But my conviction has only sharpened.
Here's Christopher's post on LinkedIn:
Context:
Christopher joined Tesla in January 2024 after stops at Amazon (senior product manager, operations and capacity), Fountain (director of strategic accounts), a venture capital fund, and Goldman Sachs, where he worked as a private wealth advisor. His LinkedIn bio also lists him as a Special Forces veteran.
The departure adds to a string of Tesla executive exits this year. Raj Jegannathan, who led North American sales, left in February after 13 years at the company, and VP of Finance Sendil Palani departed in March after 17 years.
In his farewell message to Tesla, the former B2B head highlighted the emerging importance of physical AI
Christopher framed his next move around what he called AI's next frontier. He went on to describe that frontier as AI applied to factories, supply chains, inspection, quality, energy, vehicles, and "the industrial systems that determine national strength," closing his post with "more to come."
I wouldn't be shocked if this reads, in hindsight, like a founder's exit memo more than a farewell post. "More to come" is doing a lot of work in that last line.
Source: Christopher R on LinkedIn
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