Tesla Motors (TSLA) gets a lot of attention for trying out ideas like self-parking and Wi-Fi updates to car software that make it seem much more like a tech startup than any traditional car company. The company has attracted a lot of impressive talent over the years, most obviously Elon Musk, who started investing in 2004 and took over as CEO in 2008. But Tesla team members can be as nomadic as other startup employees too, Check out where some notable Tesla alumni ended up.
Robert Rose - Rose is a double whammy for Musk companies, joining SpaceX as a software engineer in 2009 and eventually becoming director of flight software before leaving in 2014. Less than a year later, he rejoined Musk at Tesla, running the Autopilot program. But he was poached by Google just this past November to be part of its robotics division.
Jamie Carlson - The former manager of Tesla's autopilot project, Carlson was recruited to Apple's "Special Projects" team, and rumored to be part of Apple's own plans to build an electric car, one of many such executives poached by Apple for the project.
Nick Sampson - Sampson was the director of vehicle and chassis engineering at Tesla for two years, leaving the company in 2012. His leadership role in creating the basis of the Model S has served him well as the senior vice president of R&D and engineering at another electric car startup, Faraday Future, which he helped found in 2014.
Dag Reckhorn - Tesla's director of manufacturing for almost four years, Reckhorn is another leader at Faraday as the vice president of manufacturing. Faraday as a whole has brought in a lot of former Teslaites, including Tom Wessener, who used to be director of purchasing at Tesla, and dozens of other engineers and designer with experience at Tesla.
Milo Werner - Werner had a very long history at Tesla, eight and a half years. She started as a manufacturing engineer in 2007, but worked her way up through product management, becoming the senior manager for new product introduction in 2013, a role she held for two years. She helped introduce major Tesla features like Autopilot, powertrains and the dual motor. She left last June and is now at Fitbit as the director for its own new product introduction operations.
