Tesla Hires Ford Executive, Mazda Designer

Tesla Motors Inc. names former Ford Motor Co. executive as its chief financial officer.

In his 15-year stint at Ford, Deepak Ahuja served in various capacities, most recently as controller for the Dearborn, MI-based auto maker’s small-cars development program.

Previously, Ahuja was CFO at Ford of Southern Africa, a $3 billion subsidiary, where he oversaw finance, legal and information-technology functions.

Prior to that, Ahuja served as CFO for AutoAlliance International Inc., a joint venture between Ford and Mazda Motor Corp. based in Flat Rock, MI.

“Deepak’s experience as CFO of multi-billion business units with global sourcing and manufacturing operations makes him the ideal person to lead our finance organization through the company’s next period of rapid growth,” Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori says in a statement.

“The addition of another seasoned auto industry executive to the senior management team at Tesla demonstrates that Tesla is focused on combining the best of what Detroit and Silicon Valley has to offer in building the next great American automobile company.”

The upstart electric-vehicle manufacturer also names Franz von Holzhausen, design director-Mazda North American Operations, as its design director. An official announcement on Holzhausen’s appointment is expected tomorrow.

Tesla last month hired Chrysler LLC executive Mike Donoughe as executive vice president-vehicle engineering and manufacturing.

Donoughe previously served as vice president of Chrysler “Project D,” where he led the redesign of the auto maker’s global midsize vehicle portfolio.