- Robyn Denholm has pocketed roughly $180 million selling shares over the past six months and still has plenty of options she can yet exercise. The New York Times published an analysis showing she has earned five times as much as UnitedHealth Group's Stephen Hemsley, the next non-executive chair who most often liquidates stock.
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm once again finds herself in the crosshairs of controversy over her string of recent stock sales.
Fortune has regularly reported on the various transactions, in which the Australian has made over $180 million over the past six months—often times selling when investors were still reeling as the company's core car business entered its worst crisis in years.
On Tuesday, roughly a week after her most recent stock sale, the New York Times ran an article comparing and contrasting it to other non-executive chairs and discovered her compensation is far larger than even her best-paid peers.
It found that the $530 million in total she has collected from the sale of Tesla stock since becoming chair in 2018 dwarfs the next closest non-executive chair, UnitedHealth Group’s Stephen Hemsley, who earned over $100 million over a similar period.
Tesla did not respond to Fortune's request for comment.
Non-executive board chairs like Denholm and Hemsley focus primarily on governance issues, providing broad oversight and ensuring the C-suite tasked with running the day-to-day operations act in the best interests of all shareholders.
Yet if there is one major criticism Denholm constantly faces even among Tesla’s long-term shareholders, it’s how little influence she wields over CEO Elon Musk.
During the height of the boycotts and backlash—when insiders like Denholm and James Murdoch were selling—the company's retail shareholders were begging her to take action and reassure them that their anguish was being heard in the board. She even received crowdsourced suggestions from the community about what the board could do to soothe some of the more frayed nerves. A simple thanks as reply was the only answer they got.
President Trump's "first buddy" has been blamed for inflicting potentially historic and irreversible damage to the Tesla brand this year.
Denholm understands Musk cannot nor should not be controlled, say supporters
Apart from her stock sales, Denholm is rarely visible. She emerged from the background only once last year to lobby for Musk’s pay package, the largest in human history and worth over $101 billion at the current stock price.
Supporters counter that anyone familiar with Musk will know he cannot be controlled. Nor, in their perspective, should he be, since his unconventional approach to managing distinguishes him as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of his generation.
They say Denholm understands that any attempt to rein him in would be tantamount to stifling his talent as a visionary, and therefore is counterproductive to growing the company in the long run.
Objectively, the market seems to be saying Denholm is right—despite the brand's EV sales being in freefall, the company's stock just retook the $1 trillion threshold in market cap.
A spokesman for Denholm told the paper her earnings were commensurate with the value created for investors: “Tesla has outperformed its industry peers and created outsized returns for the owners of the company, the shareholders.”
In the meantime, it’s doubtful that Denholm will stop unloading Tesla shares. According to Tesla investor and influencer Alexandra Merz, Denholm maintains a rule about selling down her stock as she exercises the underlying options: "This approach helps ensure her independence in governance decisions."
According to Tesla’s amended 10-K filing, she still has enough options to unload a further half million shares. The other half was cancelled this month as part of a court settlement. Denholm maintains a small holding of 85,000 shares worth roughly $28.4 million at current prices.
