3 minTesla's VP of Finance Sendil Palani leaves after 17 years, the latest in a long line of senior exits
Sendil Palani, who joined Tesla when the company was close to collapse in 2008, has announced he is leaving. His exit follows a string of departures of long-serving executives over the past year.
One of Tesla's longest-serving finance leaders is leaving. Sendil Palani, Vice President of Finance, announced on Monday, March 9, 2026, in a long post on X that his time at the company has come to an end after 17 years.
Who he is
Palani joined Tesla's finance team around the turn of 2009, just after Christmas 2008. That was one of the darkest moments in the company's history: Tesla was running out of money, and he wrote that the company "barely survived" that Christmas. He was promoted to Vice President of Finance in March 2021.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he held a range of finance and operations roles over the years, including engineering and manufacturing finance, corporate planning and the management of major programs. That makes him one of the few senior managers left who were there before Tesla's stock market listing in 2010.
What he said
In his post, Palani looked back on starting at a time when the media ran a so-called 'Tesla Deathwatch'. He thanked Elon Musk for showing the power of thinking from first principles, and praised his finance team. He did not give a reason for leaving.
Tesla has not named a successor, and no last working day was given.
Part of a wider pattern
Palani's exit is the latest in a series of senior departures. Recent ones include:
- Raj Jegannathan, Vice President for IT, AI infrastructure and information security, who had briefly also led North American sales, left in February 2026.
- Victor Nechita, program manager for the Cybercab and Robotaxi, left in February 2026, one day after the first Cybercab was produced.
Over the past year or so, several other prominent names also left, according to Drive Tesla Canada:
- David Lau, software (April 2025)
- Omead Afshar, a close Musk aide who oversaw sales and operations (June 2025)
- Milan Kovac, head of the Optimus program (June 2025)
- Troy Jones, North American sales (July 2025)
- Pete Bannon, chip design (August 2025)
- Siddhant Awasthi and Emmanuel Lamacchia (November 2025)
Why it matters
One departure on its own is normal in any large company, and Tesla has always had a high turnover in its management. But the list of long-serving leaders who have left in the past year is long, and it includes people from sales, software, chips, robots and now finance.
For investors, the finance role is especially relevant. Tesla is in the middle of a heavy spending phase on AI computing, robotaxis, the Cybercab and the Optimus robot. People who know the company's numbers and history well are valuable at such a time. On the other hand, there is no sign that the departure is linked to any problem with Tesla's accounts, and Palani himself was positive about his time at the company.
What to watch next
Watch whether Tesla names a new head of finance below the CFO level, and whether more veteran leaders follow. The next moment to check is Tesla's first-quarter delivery report in early April, followed by the quarterly results, where analysts may ask about the management changes.
