Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel is officially joining the company’s board of directors following a shareholder vote.

JB Straubel was a co-founder at Tesla and the company’s longtime chief technology officer until he left in 2019 to launch Redwood Materials, which is helping create a North American battery supply chain.

After Elon Musk, Straubel was the most well-known executive at the company and was widely credited for helping give Tesla a technological edge when it came to batteries and power electronics.

Straubel has been widely recognized as an engineering leader and an expert in batteries and power electronics. It was a significant loss for the company when he decided to leave.

Last month, Tesla fans were happy to learn that he was coming back in a different capacity.

Tesla disclosed that Hiromichi Mizuno, the head of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, is not going to seek re-election on Tesla’s board. Instead, the company’s board nominated Straubel – pending a shareholder vote.

Today, Tesla’s held its annual shareholder meeting, and the company’s investors voted to have Straubel on the board for the next three years. Following the announcement that a majority of shareholders voted for him, he received a warm welcome from those in attendance.

Electrek’s Take

As a Tesla fan, I’m ecstatic about this. I’ve always admired JB. I thought he was always a great early communicator of the importance of electric transportation, which shows that he has a firm grasp of the subject.

I am happy he is back at Tesla, even if it’s just on the board. I think it might be a good indicator that he could take over the role of CEO from Musk in the future.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.