Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) Chairman urges shareholders to ignore voting advisors' opposition and support Musk's "largest in history" compensation plan.

On the eve of the shareholders' meeting next week, Robyn Denholm, the chairman of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) board of directors, publicly urged shareholders to ignore the opposition from proxy advisory firms, unions, and corporate governance groups and vote in favor of CEO Musk's compensation plan. The compensation plan is based on Musk achieving extremely high targets over the next 10 years, including increasing the company's market value to $8.5 trillion and expanding Tesla, Inc.'s Robotaxi business. Upon achieving the performance goals, Musk will receive stock incentives of up to $1 trillion (distributed in 12 stages) and his voting rights in the company will increase to about 25%. In an interview on Monday, Denholm bluntly said, "Do you want to retain Musk as CEO and incentivize him to make Tesla, Inc. the global leader in automated solutions and the most valuable company?" Musk expressed unease during the third-quarter earnings call, saying, "I don't want to end up being ousted from the company just because of the recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis after building a Siasun Robot & Automation legion." He criticized passive index funds for often following the recommendations of ISS and Glass Lewis, stating, "They have given disastrous advice in the past." (Both major proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended shareholders vote against Musk's compensation plan and other related AI-related proposals from Tesla, Inc.) Denholm also criticized these proxy advisors in a letter to shareholders, stating that they are "not applicable to companies like Tesla, Inc." She wrote, "They apply standardized, average company models, but Tesla, Inc. is not a normal company, we have brought shareholders a return of 39,000% since going public." This controversial compensation plan will be voted on at the annual meeting on November 6, and the results may determine the power structure and growth path of Tesla, Inc. over the next ten years.