Sreela Venkataratnam, a Tesla vice president who had been with the company for 11 years, has resigned, becoming one of several senior employees to leave in recent months. Venkataratnam, one of only two female VPs at Tesla, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post this week, where she reflected on her time at the company. She described her experience as “nothing short of extraordinary” and expressed pride in Tesla’s growth into a $700 billion giant.
“Leaving as a Vice President, one of only two women VPs in the company, with annual revenues approaching $100B, a market cap of $700B (peaking at $1T during the pandemic), and over 1.8 million cars delivered in a year, I am proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” Venkataratnam wrote.
In response to a congratulatory comment from Tesla’s former CFO, Jason Wheeler, who acknowledged the challenges of working at the company, Venkataratnam agreed that working at Tesla is “definitely not for the faint of heart.”
Her departure follows those of other senior Tesla employees, including Drew Baglino, senior VP of powertrain and electrical engineering, who left after 18 years with the company, and Rohan Patel, VP of public policy and business development, both of whom exited around the time layoffs began in April. Rich Otto, former head of product launches at Tesla, also resigned amid the company’s mass layoffs. Otto expressed mixed feelings about leaving, noting that while he loved the company and valued his experience there, recent layoffs had disrupted the balance between the people and the products, leading him to seek change.
In April, as Tesla slashed over 10 percent of its workforce, Elon Musk emphasized to employees the need for a “hard core” approach to reducing headcount and costs.
