In March, after Tesla's stock price fell sharply, Elon Musk told employees he was “sticking to inventory.”
Robin Denholm, chairman of Tesla's board, has not taken his advice into consideration. Denholm has made $180 million by selling Tesla stocks he acquired from serving on the board of directors over the past six months, according to an analysis by Securities Filing's New York Times.
This brings the total profit from Tesla stock sales to over $530 million since becoming a board leader in the second half of 2018.
The stock sales have questioned Denholm's confidence in Tesla's outlook. Her recent sales, carried out under a pre-placed trading plan filed last summer, came when the company's CEO Musk played a time-consuming role in the Trump administration. Tesla's car sales have partially plunged as Musk's political activities turned off several car buyers. The company's quarterly profit fell to its lowest level in four years in the first three months of 2025.
Denholm has earned the right to buy stocks known as stock options. Tesla granted options between 2014 and 2020, and its stock price has since risen sharply, giving Denholm the right to buy much less shares than its current price. For example, last week she bought over 112,000 shares for $24.73 each, and sold on the same day for more than $270.
“To throw away her inventory, I won't send you a message that this is a board chair invested in the company's future,” says New York City Director Bradlander, who oversees the city's five public pension funds. As of March, these funds held over 3 million Tesla shares, valued at around $817 million at the time.
A spokesman for Denholm said Tesla paid its executives in a way that was “completely in line with shareholder interests.”
“The reason why the value of Tesla's director's choices has increased is that Tesla is superior to its industry peers and created distinctive returns for shareholders who are the owners of the company,” he said in a statement.
Stock options, which have long made up the majority of Tesla's compensation, are only valuable if the company's stock price rises, like Tesla. Those who exercise options to purchase shares in the company may sell or hold new shares.
Denholm sells more than 1.4 million shares of Tesla, of which he holds 85,000 shares and continues to hold approximately 49,000 stock options. Comparative Methods, a compensation consulting firm, reviewed the methodology. Her latest stock sales came under a plan that she began moving in July shortly after Musk supported Donald J. Trump for the president.
Under securities regulations, executives and other insiders can use such plans to trade stocks in a company. They don't need to disclose many details of the plan, such as their reasons or the terms on which the stock will be sold. They also have a lot of room to cancel plans.
Denholm, a veteran technology executive from Australia, maintains a low profile and rarely speaks publicly about Tesla or Musk. She was hired by the Tesla Commission in 2014 and appointed chairman after Musk agreed to step down in 2018 under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
She and other board members have been criticized by some investors, activists and Delaware judges for not serving as Musk's counterweight. The Tesla director is at fault for failing to ensure he remains focused on Tesla.
“Musk operates as if there was no board oversight,” wrote Delaware Chancery Court Prime Minister Catalyne St. J. McCormick, who wrote last year, found it worth around $56 billion when he was supported in the favor of shareholders who challenged Musk's 2018 pay package. In his ruling, Judge McCormick described the style of overseeing Denholm's Musk as “Rakkadichal.”
Tesla appealed the decision, nullifying Musk's pay package, and Denholm pushed back Judge McCormick's criticism.
“Everyone who knows me knows I am not short of it because now I know what that word means,” Denholm told the Financial Times last year. “It's probably the farthest from the truth. I'm really fierce and very enthusiastic about what I'm doing.”
In a trial over Musk's salary, Denholm described the money he earned from the Tesla board as “life-changing.” Director Pay at Tesla was the subject of another lawsuit in which Denholm and other board members settled in 2023.
Musk, a long-time part-time CEO of Tesla, has taken on even more responsibilities over the years. He is a regular presence in Washington and leads President Trump's efforts to cut government spending and reject federal employees.
Musk recently said he will cut his time in Washington by one or two days a week. However, his attention will remain divided as he leads several other businesses, including SpaceX and X, the social media sites he owns.
The first sale based on Denholm's recent trading plan came in November, the week after the presidential election, as Tesla's stock price was rising. A few weeks later, in December, the stock reached a new high. She continued selling until early May as her stock prices fell in the face of consumer backlash against Musk's political activities.
After collecting some of the losses over the past few weeks, the stock has fallen by about 34% from its peak.
Musk acknowledged Tesla's difficulties during a meeting with company employees in March. “If you read the news, it feels like you know.
He continued to advise workers not to sell stocks, saying that Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world to complete self-driving taxis and robots that resemble human-like and move. “The future is very bright,” he said.
Denholm's sales have far surpassed them by other Tesla directors.
She and other current and former Tesla board members agreed to settle shareholder lawsuits over salary in 2023 and agreed to repay $735 million in compensation. They denied any misconduct. A stock option worth more than $130 million was cancelled on May 1 to meet Denholm's obligations, according to the securities application.
Board members agreed in June 2021 after the lawsuit was filed to waive the new stock grant.
Denholm also earned more money to sell the company's stocks during the same time than other corporate committee leaders. The Times reviewed share sales by the board chairs of the most valuable US companies, not executives of these companies, like Denholm.
The next non-obsessed chair who will benefit from selling shares in the company he oversees was Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group. Hemsley has earned more than $100 million from the sale of UnitedHealth shares since November 2018, but has received all of that stake while he was the CEO of a healthcare company.
The UnitedHealth Group reviewed the findings but declined to comment. On Tuesday, the company announced that it would take over the Chief Executive job, in addition to being chaired by Hemsley.
Sales by executives and directors often predict poor performance by companies they lead, several academic studies have found.
Leaders like Denholm have access to private information and have a deep understanding of how broader economic power can affect corporate performance. According to Nejat Seyhun, a professor of finance at the University of Michigan, it can make their transactions particularly profitable.
Insiders “set plans when they have information,” Professor Seyphun said. If conditions change, “You can cancel those plans.”
