In the backdrop of allegations of discrimination, harassment and poor working conditions, Arnnon Geshuri has exited from Tesla’s HR head role, and Gaby Toledano has joined in his place.  

We would like to welcome Gaby Toledano, who has joined Tesla as Chief People Officer, leading Human Resources and Facilities, reporting into Elon Musk. Gaby joins Tesla after 10 years on the Executive Team at Electronic Arts (EA), during a time of transformation and growth”, Tesla’s blog post stated.

Geshuri’s exit comes after two other HR leaders - Mark Lipscomb (former VP of HR at Tesla) and Jennifer Kim (former director of HR for engineering at Tesla) left Tesla, earlier this year. Geshuri led HR at Tesla for more than eight years, and “helped transition Tesla from a small car company that many doubted would ever succeed, to an integrated sustainable energy company with more than 30,000 employees around the globe”, the blog post added.

The factory workers have been vocal about their apprehensions around safety at Tesla.

I’ve seen people pass out, hit the floor like a pancake and smash their face open. They just send us to work around him while he’s still lying on the floor”, Jonathan Galescu, a production technician at Tesla was quoted as saying, by The Guardian.

Following recurring complaints of such nature, a recent Worksafe report has analyzed the injury rates at Tesla’s flagship vehicle plant in Fremont, California and found them to be 31 percent higher than the industry average. In addition to that, the rate of serious injuries at the plant was found to be almost double (7.9 as against the industry average of 3.9) that of the overall industry. In response to the report, a Tesla spokesperson said that the company has brought about some changes to address this, and that the injury rates have declined in the first quarter of 2017.       

Gaby Toledano, who has replaced Geshuri, is an industry veteran who comes with over 25 years of experience in the HR function. A Stanford University graduate, she has worked with organizations like Microsoft, Oracle and Electronic Arts (EA) in HR leadership roles through her career.