Who Is Vaibhav Taneja? Tesla's India-Origin CFO Earns More Than Pichai, Nadella
A Certified Public Accountant, Taneja has over 17 years of work experience. He was appointed as Tesla's CFO in 2023.
Tesla's Chief Financial Officer, Vaibhav Taneja, is grabbing headlines following news of his $139.5 million pay package in 2024. The Indian-origin CFO’s earnings are reported to have surpassed those of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella. Pichai earned $10.73 million, while Nadella took home $79.106 million in 2024, as per reports.
Earlier, Kim Brady from Nikola held the record for the highest CFO package, with a compensation package of $80.6 million in 2020, state reports.
Taneja’s earnings were driven primarily by equity awards and stock options given after his promotion. These perks are higher than his base salary of $400,000. The news comes as Tesla faces intensifying competition, slow sales and reduced profit.
Here’s everything you need to know about him:
Who Is Vaibhav Taneja?
He completed a Bachelor's of Commerce degree from Delhi University. A Certified Public Accountant, Taneja has over 17 years of work experience in multinational companies linked to the technology, telecommunication and retail sectors. He completed his chartered accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
The 47-year-old has taken several companies through their initial and secondary public offerings. He also has significant experience in helping firms set up their business processes as well as streamlining existing processes.
Taneja began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He worked for over 16 years at the consulting firm, with four years in Delhi as an assistant manager and 12 years as a senior manager in San Jose, California. His responsibilities in Delhi included managing audits of rapidly growing companies, consultation and advisory services and resolving technical accounting issues. In San Jose, Taneja ensured compliance of firms with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and dealt with complex issues pertaining to revenue recognition.
He has worked in several finance and accounting roles at SolarCity Corporation, a US-based solar panel developer, since March 2016. SolarCity was acquired by Tesla in 2016.
He has been Tesla’s CFO since August 2023. Prior to that, Taneja served as the Chief Accounting Officer since March 2019. He was a Corporate Controller at Tesla from May 2018 to March 2019. He worked as an Assistant Corporate Controller at the tech giant between February 2017 and May 2018.
