Who sits on Tesla's board in 2026? The nine directors, their ties to Musk and how independent they are

Tesla's board of directors decides on Elon Musk's pay, oversees deals with his other companies and is studying a possible merger with SpaceX. So who are the people on it, and how independent are they? Tesla's 2026 proxy statement, published ahead of the December 3 shareholder meeting, gives the current line-up.

The nine directors

• Elon Musk (55), CEO, director since 2004. Not independent.
• Robyn Denholm (63), independent chair since November 2018, director since 2014. Chairs the Audit Committee and the Disclosure Controls Committee.
• Kimbal Musk (54), Elon Musk's brother, director since 2004. Not independent.
• Ira Ehrenpreis (57), venture capitalist, director since 2007. Chairs the Compensation and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees.
• James Murdoch (53), former CEO of 21st Century Fox, director since 2017.
• Kathleen Wilson-Thompson (69), former HR chief at Walgreens Boots Alliance, director since 2018.
• Joe Gebbia (45), Airbnb co-founder, director since 2022.
• JB Straubel (50), Tesla co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, director since 2023.
• Jack Hartung (69), former Chipotle finance chief, director since 2025.

The board has three classes, so each year only some seats are up for election. In December, Elon Musk, Denholm and Straubel stand for new three-year terms.

How Tesla defines independence

The board says seven of its nine members are independent under Nasdaq rules; only the two Musk brothers are not. It also lists the ties it looked at and judged not material, such as directors investing in companies founded by other directors, or in companies that do business with Tesla.

Some of those ties are worth knowing about. Ehrenpreis joined the board of SpaceX in February 2026, the same company Tesla is now studying a merger with. Kimbal Musk has also served on SpaceX's board. Straubel's Redwood Materials both supplies Tesla and buys its scrap material.

How busy the board is

According to the proxy, the board met 14 times in 2025, and its committees many more times. Special committees, which are set up for specific questions such as conflicts involving Musk, held 44 meetings. In total there were 85 board and committee meetings, more than one a week.

Directors are not taking pay

Tesla's outside directors are normally paid mainly in stock options plus a modest cash fee. Every director chose to forgo all of that for 2025, as they have done since 2021, and all eight outside directors have asked Tesla to stop paying their cash fees.

There is history behind this. In January 2025, a Delaware court approved a settlement in which Tesla's directors agreed to return up to $919 million, after a shareholder claimed they had overpaid themselves between 2017 and 2020. The deal included about $735 million in cash, stock and options, plus forgone options for 2021 to 2023. It also requires governance reforms on director pay for five years.

Why it matters

Supporters say the board knows Tesla well, works hard and has backed a CEO who has delivered huge growth for shareholders. They point to the long list of meetings and to directors working without pay.

Governance critics argue that a board with long-serving members, close business ties and a family member of the CEO is not well placed to push back on Musk. The board says it maintains "full confidence" in Musk and regularly reviews succession plans, but it has not named a successor.

What to watch next

• December 3: how many votes Musk, Denholm and Straubel receive. Low support would be a signal, even if they are re-elected.
• The merger committees: who sits on them, and how they handle the SpaceX ties of some directors.
• New directors: any addition would be the first since Hartung joined in 2025.