Robyn Denholm

{{Infobox person

| name = Robyn Denholm

| image = 2018-05-16-cebit-robyn-m-denholm-portrait.jpg

| caption = Denholm in 2018

| birth_name = Robyn M. Sammut

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1963|5|27|df=y}}

| birth_place = Milperra, New South Wales, Australia

| death_date =

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| occupation = {{plainlist|

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| known for =

| title = Chair of the Board of Tesla, Inc.

| term = November 2018{{spaced endash}}present

| predecessor = Elon Musk

| successor =

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| spouse =

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Robyn M. Denholm ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɛ|n|h|oʊ|m}}; {{nee|Sammut}}; born 27 May 1963) is an Australian business executive and former accountant who is chair of Tesla, Inc. In November 2018, Denholm was handpicked by Elon Musk to succeed him as chair of Tesla, Inc.{{Cite web |title=Robyn M. Denholm |url=https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/robyn-m-denholm |website=Tesla Investor Relations}} Prior to her appointment, she was relatively unknown.{{Cite news |last=Levy |first=Rachael |last2=Kaye |first2=Byron |date=17 March 2025 |title=As Tesla tanks, Musk's hand-picked board chair is doing just fine |url=https://www.reuters.com/investigations/tesla-tanks-musks-hand-picked-board-chair-is-doing-just-fine-2025-03-17/ |access-date=5 May 2025 |work=Reuters}} She is the highest-paid chair of any public company in the United States.

Early life

Denholm was born 27 May 1963 in Milperra, New South Wales.{{Cite news |last=Abajo |first=Carlos Gómez |date=17 November 2018 |title=Robyn Denholm, una mentora para Musk en Tesla |url=https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2018/11/16/companias/1542384925_055803.html |access-date=25 September 2019 |work=El País |language=es}} Her parents met and married in Tripoli, Libya, immigrating to Australia in the 1950s. She has Maltese and Italian ancestry on her father's side and Maltese and Scottish ancestry on her mother's side; her father spoke five languages.{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Tony |date=26 February 2021 |title=What it's really like to ride shotgun with Elon |url=https://www.afr.com/technology/the-australian-riding-shotgun-with-elon-20200917-p55wm6 |access-date=13 May 2022 |work=Australian Financial Review}}

Denholm grew up in the Sydney suburb of Lugarno with her older brother and younger sister. Her father worked as a welder and her mother was a ledger machine operator. When she was seven years old, the family purchased a service station and workshop in Milperra. Denholm handled the financial accounts, repaired cars, pumped petrol and became interested in cars.{{Cite news |last=Waters |first=Richard |last2=Smyth |first2=Jamie |date=9 November 2018 |title=Low-key Robyn Denholm takes on challenge of taming Elon Musk |url=https://www.ft.com/content/32bb0428-e3cc-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee |access-date=9 November 2018 |work=Financial Times}} She attended Peakhurst High School.

Denholm graduated from the University of Sydney with a bachelor's degree in economics, and from the University of New South Wales in 1999 with a master's degree in commerce.{{Cite news |last=Russell |first=Jon |date=8 November 2018 |title=Tesla picks telco executive Robyn Denholm to replace Elon Musk as chairman |url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/08/robyn-denholm-tesla-chair/ |access-date=8 November 2018 |work=TechCrunch |language=en-US}} Denholm is a chartered accountant (generally equivalent to a certified public accountant in the United States) and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.{{Cite web |title=Director Robyn Denholm CV |url=https://new.abb.com/docs/default-source/top-management-cvs/board-of-directors/cv-robyn-denholm.pdf/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109070951/https://new.abb.com/docs/default-source/top-management-cvs/board-of-directors/cv-robyn-denholm.pdf/ |archive-date=9 November 2018 |access-date=9 November 2018 |website=ABB}}

Career

After graduating, Denholm began her career at Arthur Andersen in Sydney in 1984.{{Cite news |last=Kinder |first=Tabby |last2=Morris |first2=Stephen |date=19 May 2024 |title=Tesla’s chair on Elon Musk: ‘I might wake up to a tweet. I don’t wake up to a strategy shift’ |url=https://www.ft.com/content/aa5464fd-c7c5-4f38-a2df-374a07439d88 |access-date=5 May 2025 |work=Financial Times}} She became the vice president of finance for Toyota Australia in 1989, a position she held for seven years.{{Cite news |last=Kollewe |first=Julia |date=8 November 2018 |title=Tesla names new chair to replace Elon Musk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/08/tesla-names-new-chair-robyn-denholm-to-replace-elon-musk |work=The Guardian}} She joined the finance division of Sun Microsystems in 1996, and relocated to Sun's offices in the United States in 2001. She took a position at Juniper Networks in 2007 where she rose to the position of chief financial officer.

Denholm joined Tesla’s board in 2014 as a director and chair of the audit committee, receiving approximately US$17 million in stock options during her tenure. She moved back to Sydney in 2017, when she took a job as chief operations officer at Telstra in early 2017 and was appointed chief financial officer on 1 October 2018, a role she held until May 2019.{{Cite news |last=Burkitt-Gray |first=Alan |date=8 November 2018 |title=Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm quits after 5 weeks to become chair of Tesla |url=https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3822667/telstra-cfo-robyn-denholm-quits-after-5-weeks-to-become-chair-of-tesla |access-date=5 February 2020 |work=Capacity Media |language=en}}

Denholm was appointed chair of Tesla in November 2018, following a settlement between Tesla, Elon Musk, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requiring Musk to step down from the role after his controversial 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private. By March 2025, she had reportedly received $682 million in cash and stock awards since joining Tesla and had sold approximately $532 million worth of stock. Denholm has faced scrutiny, including judicial criticism, over her independence as Chair, and the outsized compensation packages awarded to her and to Musk, which she has defended pointing out that Tesla’s market value increased substantially under their leadership.

Beyond Tesla, Denholm has remained active in investment and sports. In January 2021, she became an operating partner at Blackbird Ventures, a venture capital firm. The following year, her family office, Wollemi Capital Group, acquired a 30% stake in the Australian basketball teams the Sydney Kings and Sydney Uni Flames.{{Cite news |last=Thomsen |first=Simon |date=16 March 2022 |title=Tesla chair Robyn Denholm is buying a slice of the Sydney Kings and Flames basketball teams |url=https://www.startupdaily.net/2022/03/tesla-chair-robyn-denholm-is-buying-a-slice-of-the-sydney-kings-and-flames-basketball-teams/ |access-date=13 May 2022 |publisher=Startup Daily}} In 2023, Denholm was ranked 80th on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women and was ranked 95th on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list.{{Cite news |last=Forbes |first=Moira |date=5 December 2023 |title=The World’s Most Powerful Women 2023: Are Women Key To Solving The Global Leadership Crisis? |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2023/12/05/the-worlds-most-powerful-women-2023-are-women-key-to-solving-the-global-leadership-crisis/ |access-date=5 May 2025 |work=Forbes |language=en}}{{Cite news |title=Robyn Denholm - 2023 Most Powerful Women |url=https://fortune.com/ranking/most-powerful-women/2023/robyn-denholm/ |access-date=5 May 2025 |work=Fortune |language=en}}

Personal life

Denholm is married to David Taylor, a retired electrical engineer. She has a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. She had her son at age 24 and she had her daughter in 1993. She moved from Sydney to Colorado with her children in 2001. She moved back to Sydney in 2017.

= Net worth =

Denholm debuted on The Australian Financial Review Rich List in 2021 with a net worth of {{AUD}}688 million.

class="wikitable" ! rowspan=2 \| Year ! colspan=2 width=40% \| Financial Review Rich List ! colspan=2 width=40% \| Forbes Australia's 50 Richest
Rank ! Net worth (A$) ! Rank ! {{nowrap\|Net worth (US$)}}
2021{{Cite news \|last=Bailey \|first=Michael \|last2=Sprague \|first2=Julie-anne \|date=27 May 2021 \|title=The 200 richest people in Australia revealed \|url=https://www.afr.com/rich-list/australia-s-10-richest-people-revealed-20210526-p57vfr \|access-date=28 May 2021 \|work=Australian Financial Review}} \| align="center" \| {{nowrap\|{{nts\|162}} {{increase}}}} \| align="right" \| $688 million {{increase}} \| align="center" \| \| align="right" \|

class="wikitable"

! rowspan=2 | Year

! colspan=2 width=40% | Financial Review
Rich List

! colspan=2 width=40% | Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest

Rank

! Net worth (A$)

! Rank

! {{nowrap|Net worth (US$)}}

2021{{Cite news |last=Bailey |first=Michael |last2=Sprague |first2=Julie-anne |date=27 May 2021 |title=The 200 richest people in Australia revealed |url=https://www.afr.com/rich-list/australia-s-10-richest-people-revealed-20210526-p57vfr |access-date=28 May 2021 |work=Australian Financial Review}}

| align="center" | {{nowrap|{{nts|162}} {{increase}}}}

| align="right" | $688 million {{increase}}

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

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