Meet Vaibhav Taneja, Indian-origin Tesla CFO, who gets key role in Elon Musk’s America Party as...

Vaibhav Taneja has been named treasurer of the America Party, a newly launched political platform by the world's richest man, Elon Musk. Taneja is an Indian-origin man who currently works as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tesla. Taneja is formally listed as both the Custodian of Records and Treasurer for Musk’s America Party, which is aimed at disrupting the US two-party system.

America Party's formation was revealed in official documents filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Sunday. This came after Musk’s public rift with US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party over the so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill'.

Taneja's role in Tesla

Taneja has been a key figure in Tesla’s financial leadership, stepping into the CFO role in August 2023. He joined the company in 2017 as Assistant Corporate Controller and worked in this role till May 2018. He then worked as Corporate Controller till March 2019. He was later promoted to Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) before being appointed as CFO.

Before joining Tesla, the 47-year-old Indian-origin worked for a year at SolarCity, a solar energy company that Tesla acquired in 2016. The Indian-origin entrepreneur holds a bachelor's degree in Commerce from Delhi University (DU). He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Between 1997 and 2000, he also pursued his chartered accountancy at ICAI.

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Taneja has more than 19 years of experience working with multinational companies in technology, retail and telecom. He started his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he joined in 1999 as an Assistant Manager. He worked for the company for almost 17 years.  He also has experience with financial statement audits to be filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.