Tesla loses head of energy division and North American sales

Tesla’s head of energy division and North American sales, Sanjay Shah, is leaving the automaker to join Beyond Meat.

Shah joined Tesla in May 2018.

At the time, Tesla wrote a blog post about hiring the new executive:

Sanjay Shah is joining Tesla as our senior vice president of energy operations, responsible for worldwide deployment and operations of Tesla’s energy products, including Solar, Powerwall and Powerpack. Sanjay brings to Tesla more than 20 years of experience in operations, manufacturing, supply chain, and engineering. After working at Dell, Sanjay joined Amazon in 2011 and was vice president of North American fulfillment centers before leaving to join Tesla.

As the new head of the energy division, Shah was responsible for Tesla’s fast-growing energy storage business and revamping its declining solar business.

He also apparently became responsible for “North America Sales/Services/Delivery for Automotive” for Tesla along the way, according to a statement in Beyond Meat’s announcement that he is joining as COO:

Mr. Shah has more than 25 years of experience in operations, manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain management. Before joining Beyond Meat, Mr. Shah served as senior vice president of energy operations at Tesla, where he was responsible for the worldwide energy business and led the North America sales/services/delivery for automotive.

Beyond Meat said that Shah joined effective September 18.

We contacted Tesla about the situation and asked who is taking over Shah’s responsibilities as the head of the energy division and North American sales.