Robyn M. Denholm (; born 27 May 1963) is an Australian business executive. In November 2018, Denholm succeeded

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 ...

as chair of

Tesla, Inc. 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 trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...

Early life

Denholm was born on 27 May 1963 in

Milperra Milperra, a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 24 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South Western Sydney region. ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Her parents met and married in

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwe ...

, immigrating to Australia in the 1950s. She has Maltese and Italian ancestry on her father's side and Maltese and Scottish ancestry on her mother's side; her father spoke five languages. Denholm grew up in the Sydney suburb of

Lugarno Lugarno is a suburb in the St George area of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the local government area of the Georges River Council, 23 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district ...

with her older brother and younger sister. Her father worked as a welder and her mother was a ledger machine operator. When she was seven years old, the family purchased a service station and workshop in Milperra. Denholm handled the financial accounts, repaired cars, pumped petrol and became interested in cars. She attended

Peakhurst High School Peakhurst High School also known as Georges River College Peakhurst Campus, is a Co-Ed middle school going from year 7 to 10. This school offers comprehensive education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain ...

. Denholm graduated from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

with a bachelor's degree in economics, and from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

in 1999 with a master's degree in commerce. Denholm is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand.

Career

After graduating, Denholm worked in accountancy for

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

in Sydney. This was followed by seven years at

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Australia. Denholm worked at the IT companies Sun Microsystems, and then

Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security product ...

for nine years in finance and operations roles, rising to chief financial officer of Juniper. In 2014, Denholm became a non-executive director of

In the following four years as a non-executive director of Tesla, including as chair of the audit committee, Denholm received 17 million in Tesla stock options. In early-2017, Denholm was appointed as chief operations officer (COO) of

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

, Australia's largest telecoms company, subsequently becoming chief financial officer (CFO) on 1 October 2018. In November 2018, Denholm gave notice of resignation after only five weeks in the role as a result of stepping into the role of chair of Tesla Inc. Telstra CEO Andy Penn announced that Denholm would end her responsibilities as CFO at Telstra on 6 May 2019.

Net worth

Denholm debuted on ''

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' Rich List in 2021 with a net worth of 688 million.

Other activities

In 2022, Denholm's

family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50-$100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...

Wollemi Capital Group purchased a 30% stake in the Sydney Kings and

Sydney Uni Flames The Sydney Flames are an Australian professional basketball team based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Flames compete in the Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional wo ...

basketball teams.

Personal life

Denholm is married to David Taylor, a retired electrical engineer. She has a son and a daughter.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Denholm, Robyn M. Living people Chief financial officers 1963 births University of Sydney alumni University of New South Wales alumni Tesla, Inc. people Australian chairpersons of corporations 21st-century Australian businesspeople Businesspeople from Sydney Australian accountants Automotive businesspeople Australian people of Maltese descent Australian people of Italian descent Australian people of Scottish descent Sports owners