Dave Arnold, Tesla’s Senior Director of Communications steps down but will remain with the company for the next month to help transition his responsibilities to Keely Sulprizio, Tesla’s Director of Global Communications.

Arnold had joined Tesla back in January 2017 as Global Communications Director. Then in a span of over one year, he was promoted and replaced Sarah O’Brien, who had also held the position at Tesla for two years. She had then moved on to join Facebook. However, which company Arnold will now join remains unknown. 

Considering the amount of attention Tesla has received in recent times and with Elon Musk always-on media’s radar, the role of communication officer is critical for the company. The person who will replace Arnold will have huge responsibilities on his shoulders. In this case, it will most likely be Sulprizio who is also being mentored currently for the role. 

The times have been a bit rocky for the automaker with many senior leaders leaving the company. Just two months back Tesla lost its CFO, Deepak Ahuja, and then in January General Counsel, Dane Butswinkas, left in February after spending only two months on the job.  Besides the high attrition rate at the leadership level, the firm is also dealing with production challenges. Ongoing production challenges and difficulty in shipping Tesla Model 3 to international markets have weighed heavily on the company's share price.

A Tesla analyst at Evercore ISI slashed his target price for Tesla shares to $200 - down from $240 per share - for the second time in a month. On Monday Tesla shares hit their lowest point since January 2017. 

Amidst all of these production and attrition challenges, the focus on Tesla has increased and the head of communications has to come up with a strong communication strategy to curb the negative consequences of such movements. 

Image Credits: LinkedIn