Australia’s future is in tech, says Tesla chair Robyn Denholm
Elon Musk’s right-hand woman Robyn Denholm told a business forum Australia needs to embrace a new vision for the economy away from a reliance on mining and agriculture.
Elon Musk’s right-hand woman Robyn Denholm must have a few interesting tales to tell.
But at the QUT Business Leaders’ Forum in Brisbane on Wednesday the Sydney-based Tesla chair was not getting into a discussion about what it was like “wrangling” in the boardroom with the Tesla founder and the world’s richest person.
“I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur. I have always been a person who has enabled and helped founders create businesses. The Tesla founder is still walking the hall,” she said.
“I like problem solving and usually have complementary skills to the founder. Boards are there to work for all shareholders and help companies achieve their full potential.”
Originally from Sydney’s western suburbs Ms Denholm grew up working in her migrant parents’ petrol station and after university embarked on an accountancy degree which saw her start at accountants Arthur Anderson.
She has had executive roles at Toyota and in the mid-1990s pivoted into technology, joining computer gear manufacturer Sun Microsystems. A single mum of two she found herself in the US and moved to Juniper Networks in 2007, a major network equipment maker, where she became chief financial and operating officer.
She was recruited by Tesla in 2014 as a non-executive director and in early 2017 returned to Sydney to take up the chief operations officer role at Telstra. In October 2018 she became the telco’s giant’s effective second in charge as its chief financial officer.
Five weeks later she resigned after agreeing to take over from the controversial entrepreneur as the chair of Tesla.
Ms Denholm admitted there was a level of risk in her move but wanted to help Tesla continue its journey which began four years previously.
And what a journey, especially in the last 18 months.
By the end of 2022 the company had lost roughly 70 per cent of its value since the stock hit a record high in November 2021, weighed down by global economic uncertainty, increased competition and concerns that Musk was spending too much time on his acquisition of Twitter.
Since then the share price has recovered but it is well under its 2021 high.
“It’s worked out but by the same token you have to believe in what you’re doing. I don’t know how to do it any other way,” Ms Denholm said. “There was a long period of time when everyone was saying electric vehicles were hopeless. But we are now past the tipping point in terms of EV globally. When I joined the board in 2014 the company produced 30,000 electric vehicles and last year it produced 1.365 million.”
Ms Denholm said it was important that Australia embraced a new vision for the economy away from a reliance on mining and agriculture.
The Tech Council of Australia has set the goal that by 2030 tech activity across all industries will contribute $250bn every year to the national GDP. It also is aiming for the tech sector to employ more than 1.2 million Australians.
“Tech is here to stay and is set to grow and expand at a blistering pace. No matter what cyclical downturns tech may face, it will keep growing – it must, because our future prosperity depends upon it,” Ms Denholm said.
“It’s true that tech has been in the news recently as a result of prominent lay-offs across the world. Obviously when big tech firms sneeze, some commentators claim the industry is headed for the ICU.
“But times are different. Tech is different. While external pressures come and go, the trend has stayed the same – more of our jobs and more of what we make in Australia is reliant on tech. It would be a mistake to make decisions about Australia’s long-term future based on a cyclical downturn.”
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