SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis recommended Tesla Inc shareholders vote against board nominee JB Straubel at the electric carmaker’s annual meeting next month, raising concerns regarding his independence.
Straubel is a co-founder of Tesla and served as its chief technology officer from May 2005 to July 2019.
“The unwinding of conflicting relationships between former management and board members is more likely to be complete and final after five years,” Glass Lewis said in a report published on Wednesday.
“As such, we do not believe that shareholders should consider this director to be independent at this time.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
