Marc Tarpenning (born June 1, 1964) is an American engineer and technology entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Tesla Inc. with

Martin Eberhard Martin Eberhard (born ) is an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Eberhard served as Tesla's original chairman, and its CEO until late 2007. In 2015, he was in ...

in 2003. Tarpenning served as the

Chief Financial Officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

(CFO) and Vice President of Engineering of Tesla.

Early life

Marc Tarpenning was born in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, on June 1, 1964. He attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and obtained a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

in 1985.

Career

After graduating from Berkeley, Tarpenning spent several years working for

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engines. ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. Tarpenning then developed software and firmware products for several companies, including

Seagate Technology Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American data storage company. It was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology and commenced business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquart ...

and Bechtel, and later served as vice president of engineering at

Packet Design Packet Design is an Austin, Texas-based network performance management software company credited with pioneering route analytics technology. This network monitoring technology analyzes routing protocols and structures in meshed IP networks by par ...

, a network technology company. In 1997, Tarpenning and

founded

NuvoMedia The Rocket eBook is an early commercial handheld e-reader that was produced by NuvoMedia in late 1998; it uses a LCD screen and can store up to ten e-books. E-books are loaded on the device by connecting it to a computer and the device has two pag ...

, a company that built an early e-book reader, the RocketBook, in 1998. In 2000, Gemstar–TV Guide International acquired NuvoMedia for $187 million. In 2003, Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard collaborated again and founded

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and electric truck, trucks), battery energy storage from ...

(now Tesla Inc.). The two co-founders funded the company until early 2004, when

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

led the company's $6.5 million Series A financing round in February 2004 and became the chairman of the board. Tarpenning continued to serve as the

(CFO) and the Vice President of Electrical Engineering in Tesla until 2008. After leaving Tesla, Tarpenning began to serve as an adviser or member of advisory board of several companies, including his alma mater (SkyDeck project,

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

) and Spero Ventures, a VC firm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarpenning, Marc 1964 births Living people American chief executives in the automobile industry Tesla, Inc. people University of California, Berkeley alumni People from Sacramento, California American founders of automobile manufacturers Automotive businesspeople