증권 거래위원회의 최근 제출 자료에 따르면 제롬 길렌(Jerome Guillen) 테슬라 전 사장이 사임 이후 2억 7410만 달러(한화 약 3101억원) 규모의 테슬라 주식을 매도했다.
길렌은 2018년 3분기에 테슬라의 자동차 부문 사장이되어 모든 자동차 사업을 감독했다. 재임 기간 동안 회사는 상하이에 첫 번째 공장을 설립하고 배터리 셀 공급 파트너십을 확대했으며 Model Y를 대량생산하기 시작했다.
그러나 길렌의 재임 기간 동안 테슬라는 품질 문제, 리콜 및 부품 문제 등으로 어려움을 겪기도하였다. 지난 3월 길렌 전 사장은 전 차량 사업 총괄에서 대형 트럭 분야 사장으로 옮겨졌다. 그리고 6월 3일에 그는 회사를 떠났다. 이러한 이직 사유에 대해서는 정확히 공개가 되지 않았다.
InsiderScore의 연구 책임자인 벤 실버맨의 보고서에 따르면 길렌은 테슬라의 주식 451,118주에 대한 매도를 진행했으며 총 수익금 2억 7410만 달러 규모의 수익금을 얻었을 것으로 확인된다. 그리고 길렌은 아직까지 75,780주 가량이 남아있다고 추정된다.
이러한 매도에 대한 논평에 길렌 전 부사장은 응답하지 않았으며 테슬라에서 떠난 자신의 개인 투자 전략이라며 공개적인 언급을 피했다.
증권 관계자는 길렌 전 부사장의 매도에 대해 “길렌 전 부사장은 자신의 옵션을 행사하거나 몰수할 수 있는 시간적 여유가 없었을 것이다. 그는 더 이상 내부자가 아니기에 정보 우위를 잃었고 이것이 위험 자산인 주식을 많이 매도한 배경이 되었을 수있다”고 평가하며 “이는 드문 일이 아니고 많은 퇴사자들이 정보우위를 잃게되면 큰 금액의 매도를 진행한다”고 말했다.
CNBC는 “일론 머스크 최고경영자(CEO) 등 테슬라 4대 리더 중 한 명인 길렌의 이탈로 세미 전기 트럭과 4680셀이라는 신형 배터리 등 테슬라의 향후 전망에 대한 시장의 우려가 커지고 있다”고 평가했다.
Former Tesla executive Jerome Guillen sold more than $270 million worth of shares by exercising stock options after his departure on June 3, according to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Guillen became president of automotive in the third quarter of 2018, overseeing all of Tesla’s automotive business. During his tenure, the company opened its first plant overseas in Shanghai, expanded its battery cell supply partnerships and started mass-producing the Model Y.
But Tesla also struggled with quality issues, recalls and parts shortages under Guillen that significantly constrained production — the company produced zero Model S and X vehicles in the first quarter of the year before he was moved out of the role.
Tesla moved him into the role of president of heavy trucking in March this year, and in June Guillen left the company. The exact circumstances of his departure have not been disclosed.
According to Ben Silverman, director of research at InsiderScore, the filings indicate that Guillen exercised options for 451,118 shares of Tesla and likely sold the underlying shares for gross proceeds of $274.1 million.
After that, Guillen had 75,780 exercisable options left, Silverman estimates.
Tesla executives don’t get any special treatment when they leave. In more formal terms, they are at-will employees with no guaranteed severance or accelerated vesting of equity if they resign or are fired, Silverman noted.
Guillen had approximately $442 million in unvested options and unvested restricted stock when he left, according to InsiderScore’s analysis. Filings indicate that he also had 1,212 restricted shares that would have vested just two days after his last day at Tesla and would have been worth nearly $700,000.
Guillen did not respond to a request for comment and has not spoken publicly about his departure from Tesla or his personal investment strategy.
Silverman said of the former exec, “He may have had a narrow window of time to exercise his options or forfeit them. It could have been a use-it-or-lose-it situation that made him decide to buy and sell so much now. He’s also not an insider any more. So he may not feel comfortable having that much exposure to the stock. That’s not entirely unusual. If you’re not an insider, you’ve lost your information edge.”
Meanwhile, Tesla has not announced the appointment of a new head of heavy trucking.
During an April 2021 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla was “continuing development work on the Semi,” indicating the company isn’t close to mass-manufacturing its debut, heavy-duty vehicle for which Guillen was made responsible. Tesla first revealed the Class-8 Tesla Semi in November 2017.
On the same first-quarter earnings call, Musk talked about delays in manufacturing the company’s new large battery cell, the 4680, which Tesla designed and aimed to manufacture on its own, in part to power its larger vehicles, the Semi and forthcoming Cybertruck.
Musk said in April, “We’ve made quite a few cells. We’re not quite yet at the point where we think the cells are reliable enough to be shipped in cars, but we’re getting close to that.” He said Tesla was still “quite optimistic about achieving volume production of the 4680 next year.”
