[Posted on November 29, 2007 - 4:55 PM]
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Central casting couldn't have delivered someone better-suited to play the role of Tesla Motors Inc. CEO than Ze'ev Drori. The larger-than-life Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who in 1969 founded programmable chip pioneer Monolithic Memories Inc. (ultimately acquired by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in 1987), is also a long-time competitive racecar driver. Drori may well have what it takes to accelerate the much anticipated, but twice delayed, Tesla electric sports car and get it on the road next year. In 1983, his exasperation with the alarm system in his Porsche motivated him to buy auto security startup Clifford Electronics, which he sold to Allstate Insurance in 1999.
Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk thinks Drori is the best person to deliver on the electric car maker's promise of a luxury roadster that can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in four seconds, travel 250 miles on a single charge and produce no emissions, albeit it an initial cost of $100,000.
"Ze'ev is a successful high-tech entrepreneur and an experienced chief executive with the proven ability to create and manage companies with innovative products in both the high-tech and automotive sectors," says Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, in a statement.
Drori will take over the driver's seat at Tesla on Monday. He relieves Michael Marks, the former CEO of Flextronics International Inc. and an investor in Tesla who has been serving as interim CEO since August, when co-founder Martin Eberhard stepped down. The company describes the move as typical in the life cycle of a startup, and Eberhard remains as president of technology.
Tesla has raised a whopping $100 million in venture funding, but it has hit a few bumps in the road lately, including delays due to transmission troubles and the cancellation of a deal to supply battery packs to electricity distribution startup Project Better Place, apparently so it could focus on finishing its own product. Now it's up to Drori to get Tesla back on track. - Mary Kathleen Flynn
See Oct. 30 post from Tech Confidential
See March 2 story from TheDeal.com
For more see posts from Autoblog, earth2tech, MotorAuthority
