Kenyan engineer walks away from top Tesla job
Thursday January 10 2019
Engineer Charles Mwangi. He has resigned as senior director of engineering at US electric carmaker Tesla to join an undisclosed start-up. PHOTO | COURTESY
Charles Mwangi, a senior engineer at US electric carmaker Tesla, has resigned making him the latest senior staffer to exit the Elon Musk-headed firm.
Mr Mwangi, an alumnus of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), resigned as senior director of engineering to join an undisclosed start-up.
The Kenyan engineer announced his decision to leave the California-based company after six years on his LinkedIn account on Monday.
“The start-up I am joining is still under the radar, but I couldn’t be more excited to be joining this team,” he said without revealing further details.
“In my next journey, I am lucky enough to have found that same inspiration as the early days of Tesla but in a completely different industry. A world-changing human mission. Global scale. A team with a deep commitment to excellence.”
He had not responded to queries from the Business Daily on the reasons behind his departure and his next venture by the time of going to press.
Mr Mwangi joined the US automobile maker in 2012 and became the senior director of engineering in August last year.
He headed the Tesla subsidiary Tesla Tool & Die and was responsible for body manufacturing engineering, body equipment controls and maintenance engineering.
He previously worked at Toyota in Indiana between 2003 and 2005.
He later joined Nissan Motor Corporation in Mississippi in 2006 before exiting to join Tesla seven years ago.
Mr Mwangi is the latest top executive to leave the US electric car maker with at least six others having left since last year.
The four-door Sedan Model 3 launched last year is the latest electric car made by Tesla.
Others include Model S, X and the open two-seat Roaster first manufactured in 2007.