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Robyn Denholm

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Robyn Denholm
Denholm in 2018
Born
Robyn M. Sammut

(1963-05-27) 27 May 1963 (age 62)[1]
Milperra, New South Wales, Australia
Alma mater
Occupations
TitleChair of the Board of Tesla, Inc.
TermNovember 2018 – present
PredecessorElon Musk

Robyn M. Denholm (/ˈdɛnhoʊm/; née 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.[2] Prior to her appointment, she was relatively unknown.[3] She is the highest-paid chair of any public company in the United States.[3]

Early life

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Denholm was born 27 May 1963 in Milperra, New South Wales.[1] 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.[4]

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.[4] Denholm handled the financial accounts, repaired cars, pumped petrol and became interested in cars.[5] She attended Peakhurst High School.[4]

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.[5][6] 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.[7]

Career

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After graduating, Denholm began her career at Arthur Andersen in Sydney in 1984.[5][8] She became the vice president of finance for Toyota Australia in 1989, a position she held for seven years.[5][6][9] She joined the finance division of Sun Microsystems in 1996,[9][6] 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.[5][6]

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.[5] 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.[10]

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.[9] 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.[3] 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.[8]

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.[2] 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.[11]

Personal life

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Denholm is married to David Taylor, a retired electrical engineer. She has a son and a daughter from a previous marriage.[3][4] 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.[3] She moved back to Sydney in 2017.[8]

Net worth

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Denholm debuted on The Australian Financial Review 2021 Rich List with a net worth of A$688 million.[12] As of May 2025, her net worth was assessed at A$952 million on the 2025 Rich List.[13] 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.[14][15]

Year Financial Review
Rich List 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (A$) Rank Net worth (US$)
2021[12] 162 Increase $688 million Increase
2022
2023[16] n/a not listed
2024[17] n/a not listed
2025[13] 166 Increase $952 million Increase
Legend
Icon Description
Steady Has not changed from the previous year
Increase Has increased from the previous year
Decrease Has decreased from the previous year

References

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  1. ^ a b Abajo, Carlos Gómez (17 November 2018). "Robyn Denholm, una mentora para Musk en Tesla". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Robyn M. Denholm". Tesla Investor Relations.
  3. ^ a b c d e Levy, Rachael; Kaye, Byron (17 March 2025). "As Tesla tanks, Musk's hand-picked board chair is doing just fine". Reuters. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Davis, Tony (26 February 2021). "What it's really like to ride shotgun with Elon". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Waters, Richard; Smyth, Jamie (9 November 2018). "Low-key Robyn Denholm takes on challenge of taming Elon Musk". Financial Times. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d Russell, Jon (8 November 2018). "Tesla picks telco executive Robyn Denholm to replace Elon Musk as chairman". TechCrunch. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  7. ^ "Director Robyn Denholm CV". ABB. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  8. ^ a b c Kinder, Tabby; Morris, Stephen (19 May 2024). "Tesla's chair on Elon Musk: 'I might wake up to a tweet. I don't wake up to a strategy shift'". Financial Times. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  9. ^ a b c Kollewe, Julia (8 November 2018). "Tesla names new chair to replace Elon Musk". The Guardian.
  10. ^ Burkitt-Gray, Alan (8 November 2018). "Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm quits after 5 weeks to become chair of Tesla". Capacity Media. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  11. ^ Thomsen, Simon (16 March 2022). "Tesla chair Robyn Denholm is buying a slice of the Sydney Kings and Flames basketball teams". Startup Daily. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  12. ^ a b Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (27 May 2021). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  13. ^ a b Redrup, Yolanda (30 May 2025). "Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed, fortunes blow past $667b". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
  14. ^ Forbes, Moira (5 December 2023). "The World's Most Powerful Women 2023: Are Women Key To Solving The Global Leadership Crisis?". Forbes. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  15. ^ "Robyn Denholm - 2023 Most Powerful Women". Fortune. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  16. ^ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (26 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  17. ^ Redrup, Yolanda; Bailey, Michael (30 May 2024). "Australia's wealthiest 200 now control $625b". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
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