- By Supratik Das
- Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:13 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
In a significant political and business move, Indian-origin Vaibhav Taneja, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tesla Inc., has been appointed as the Treasurer and Custodian of Records of Elon Musk's recently formed 'America Party'. The appointment was confirmed in documents filed with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). Billionaire businessman Elon Musk revealed the launch of the 'America Party' on Saturday in a post on his social media site X, describing it as a movement to restore "freedom" and shatter what he referred to as the "one-party system" in America. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk wrote on X. He accused the current system of “bankrupting the country with waste & graft”.
Who Is Vaibhav Taneja?
Vaibhav Taneja, 47, has had an extraordinary journey from the streets of Delhi to the boardroom of Tesla, one of the world’s most valuable companies. Taneja is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he spent 17 years working across India and the United States, gaining extensive experience in assurance and compliance. In 2016, Taneja became a member of SolarCity Corporation as Corporate Controller and Vice President. When Tesla acquired SolarCity in the same year, Taneja was instrumental in merging the accounting teams of both companies. He became a part of Tesla formally in 2017 as Assistant Corporate Controller and soon moved up the corporate ladder to be appointed as Corporate Controller in 2018 and Chief Accounting Officer in 2019. In August 2023, he replaced Zach Kirkhorn as CFO of Tesla.
Taneja was in the news worldwide earlier this year when it was revealed that his overall compensation in 2024 will be an eye-popping 139 million USD (around 1,160 crore rupees) largely spurred by stock options and equity awards tied to Tesla's stock performance. His income surpassed that of a number of well-known tech CEOs, such as Alphabet's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. Taneja's gross compensation was approximately 400,000 USD (3.33 crore rupees), but most of it was from equity awards based on Tesla's stock price, which was approximately $250 when the grant was made. Interestingly, Taneja is not the first Indian-origin CFO in Tesla. Before him, Deepak Ahuja occupied the role from 2017 to 2019. Apple recently also appointed an Indian-origin executive, Kevan Parekh, as its CFO, highlighting the increasing number of Indian talent taking up senior corporate positions worldwide.
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As Treasurer and Record Custodian for the America Party, Taneja will be in charge of the party's financial and compliance functions, an important job as Musk tries to mold the political landscape of the US.