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Tesla's chief accounting officer drives off after just a month on the job

Second exec says bye on same day – all while boss Elon Musk smokes a joint

Updated Tesla's chief accounting officer (CAO), Dave Morton, has run for the hills after a matter of weeks at Elon Musk's electric car company.

In a filing (PDF) to the US Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC), Tesla announced that Morton was to leave the building.

For his part, Morton said: "Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future."

A future sheared of battery-powered showboats? Perhaps not. Morton went on to say that he strongly believed in Tesla and its mission. But clearly not quite enough to spend much more than an entire month counting the company's beans.

Morton continued by saying he had no disagreements with Tesla's leadership.

Tesla's CAO joined from the comparatively calmer pastures of Seagate Technology, where he'd enjoyed a number of leadership positions since 1995, culminating in the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer.

At Tesla, he reported, briefly, to CFO Deepak Ahuja and was responsible for the company's corporate financial reporting. Such a role must have been a delight in the month where Musk announced plans to take Tesla private before backing away from the idea shortly after.

Morton ended by stating he had no disagreement with Tesla's financial reporting, but could he go now? Please?

Timing is everything, and it's a shame Morton didn't stick it out for longer. It certainly looks as though his old big-boss Elon Musk is trying to kick back and take a break from the frantic pace of life at Tesla – by smoking some weed during an interview in the US this week.

Hot on the heels of the Morton announcement, HR chief Gaby Toledano has confirmed she has also hung up her boots at Tesla, telling Bloomberg she was extending her leave of absence by making it a permanent thing. She joined the biz in May 2017. ®

Updated to add

Tesla also today released this internal email announcing a bunch of promotions. Its share price is down 6.30 per cent to $263.24 apiece.

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