Meet Musk’s fixer, the powerful executive reshaping Tesla

The forum, hosted by Tesla’s most senior automotive executive, Tom Zhu, was designed to get the company’s global leadership team on the same page about best practices and the rising threat from electric-vehicle makers in China.

But Afshar, Musk’s former project manager and confidant, wasn’t a manufacturing executive at the time. In fact, it wasn’t clear to many that he was even employed at Tesla, people familiar with the events said.

At Tesla, many people hadn’t seen him since 2022, when he moved to two of Musk’s other companies after an internal investigation raised questions about his role in a suspicious materials purchase at the Texas factory, according to people familiar with the events.

Afshar’s attendance at the Shanghai forum was a sign of things to come. In the months since, the man known at Tesla as Musk’s fixer ascended the ranks to become one of the most powerful executives at the electric-car maker.

He returned to Giga Texas, Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, in early 2024 as Musk restructured his leadership team and laid off more than 10% of the company, people familiar with the events said.

This fall, the 37-year-old Afshar was officially promoted to vice president, overseeing sales and vehicle manufacturing in North America and Europe—two regions previously overseen by Zhu, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported.

Afshar, Tesla and Musk didn’t return requests for comment.

A Californian who joined Tesla seven years ago, Afshar once ran Tesla’s office of the CEO and oversaw construction of Tesla’s 10-million-square-foot factory in Texas. He was seen by employees internally as a proxy to Musk and made decisions on the ground, while his boss flew around the world and split his time between Tesla, his rocket company SpaceX and other startups.

“I focus on wherever the problem is, so a lot of firefighting," Afshar said at an alumni event in 2019 at the University of California, Irvine. “If there’s an issue, that’s where I am. Usually when people see me, they’re not always happy because it means there’s a problem."

The ‘kingmaker’

His promotion signifies Musk’s renewed focus on the car business at a time when profitability and sales have come under pressure, and Tesla is putting more resources in robotics and AI, a transition Musk sees as critical to the company’s future. It also reshapes Tesla’s leadership team, after the top ranks were thrown into flux this spring with the departure of several high-ranking executives.

Through the years and at his different stops, Afshar has been called many things by co-workers—the “kingmaker," the “messenger" and the “Musk whisperer"—to signify his closeness to the boss.

Inside Tesla, he is known for his ability to mind-meld with Musk and translate the wants and needs of the mercurial billionaire to other members of Tesla’s leadership team. Like Musk, Afshar has also slept on the factory floor and prioritizes his job at the expense of his personal life.

“I miss a few birthdays from time to time," he said at the UC Irvine alumni event.

Afshar has been Musk’s right-hand man for several years and is viewed by employees as capable of influencing Musk’s decisions and often acting on his behalf.

Some colleagues have leaned on Afshar for tactical help, showing him slide decks or presentations before meeting with Musk, or to get feedback on the CEO’s mood, say those who have worked with Afshar.

Afshar grew up near Los Angeles and graduated from the University of California, Irvine, where he studied biomedical engineering. During college, he worked as a ski instructor in Mammoth, Calif., and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a professional engineer. After graduating, he joined the medical-device company St. Jude Medical, which was later acquired by Abbott Laboratories.

Then in 2017, Afshar joined Tesla’s Office of the CEO, a group focused on the needs of Musk, which was run by his longtime aide Sam Teller.

A cowboy emoji

Musk deployed Afshar where needed, giving him a variety of roles that spanned everything from building cars to managing the energy team and running sales, service and delivery.

When Teller left in 2019, Afshar moved up the ranks, taking frequent trips to China as Tesla built its Shanghai factory.

In 2020, Afshar was put in charge as senior director of Giga Texas, identifying the position on his LinkedIn page with an emoji of a cowboy.

To build the factory quickly required Afshar to keep the same schedule as his boss Musk: starting later in the day and working well into the night. In the early days of the factory construction, Afshar moved into one of the trailers set up as offices on site, a person who worked with him said.

Occasionally at his companies, Musk gets deeply involved in decision-making, especially when it comes to spending. Initially, during the Giga Texas project, Musk had a rule that he had to personally approve every purchase order over $25,000. But as Musk got busy with other work, that responsibility shifted to Afshar, people familiar with the process said.

By summer 2022, Giga Texas was mostly complete. The giant building had large glass windows made of sheets that were 32.5 feet tall, 9.5 feet wide and 4 inches thick. Each panel cost about $400,000, and orders took more than 30 weeks to complete.

Around that time, an order for millions of dollars in specialized glass—the type of large-format panels used on building facades—sparked concern among some employees about what the materials would be used for, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

An internal investigation raised questions about Afshar’s role in the order, the people said. Soon after, Afshar stepped back from the day-to-day at Tesla, and news of the internal inquiry spread through the company.

The investigation was connected to a structure called Project 42, a dramatic glass-walled building that was discussed internally as a house for Musk, the Journal reported. The Justice Department has opened its own probe into the matter.

Afshar hasn’t responded to the Journal’s requests about the glass structure, nor have Musk or his representatives. On X, Musk has said he wasn’t building a glass house.

Back at Tesla

After stepping away from Tesla in 2022, Afshar joined SpaceX, taking the title of vice president of Starship production, reporting directly to Musk. Soon after, Afshar moved to Twitter, where he joined Musk’s transition team following the social-media site’s acquisition in October that year.

The platform’s Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino also turned to Afshar for advice on how to work with Musk after she was tapped for the role in May 2023, according to a person familiar with the events.

By early 2024, Musk had a new plan for Tesla. A long-anticipated $25,000 car known as the “Model 2" was put on hold. Instead, teams inside Tesla moved their attention on plans for a new purpose-built robotaxi known as the Cybercab.

Afshar reappeared at Tesla’s headquarters ahead of widespread layoffs at Tesla in April, people familiar with the events said. Around the same time, Zhu returned to China.

In October, a few days after Tesla’s big event showing off Musk’s vision for self-driving vehicles, SpaceX landed its Starship booster for the first time, a major achievement.

Behind the scenes, Musk geared up for a tour of U.S. swing states where he planned to campaign for former President Donald Trump. Afshar wrote a post on X celebrating the success of both companies—a clear message of support for his boss.

“Starship  + Robotaxi  + Optimus," Afshar wrote in an emoji-filled post. “Hard to top a week like this!"

Write to Becky Peterson at becky.peterson@wsj.com