Luc Leroy’s journey includes all the ingredients of the Tesla recipe. A (good) dose of innovation, coupled with a touch of the unexpected. All on a bed of agility, strewn with sleepless nights. Armed with a solid experience in mechanics and software, this engineer established for more than a decade in the heart of Silicon Valley will have contributed for two years to the growth of the Californian manufacturer. In 2018, the Franco-American let himself be seduced by the proposal submitted to him by the troublemaker of the automobile. Very quickly, he is propelled to a key function: the direction of automation. A Tesla-style promotion. “I had received a text from my boss, Doug Field [NDLR : à l’époque vice-président de l’ingénierie] asking me to go to the factory in Fremont the next day. At the end of the visit, he asked me if I would accept this new job, when I had only taken up my first duties a few months ago!” recalls the talkative man in his forties. Surrounded by a colossal team of 300 automation engineers, he multiplies the exploits. In three months, the production of the Fremont factory increases from 2,000 to 5,000 Model 3 per week. It is also Luc Leroy who designs and supervises the implementation of the software architectures of the Chinese gigafactory in Shanghai A golden experience.
Agile talents… and very expensive
Dismissed by the controversial billionaire or volunteers at the start, the ex-Tesla have little to fear for the rest of their careers, as their profiles are appreciated. Director of Quality between 2011 and 2012, Philippe Chain summarizes the qualities acquired by these professionals. “My time at Tesla was a revelation. I saw it as a unique way of innovating in the automobile by going fast and taking risks”, explains the one who had previously scoured the corridors of Renault and Nissan. Excellent in their fields and very agile, these talents are also… very expensive. “Cash compensation at Tesla is in the industry average. But employees receive stock options. Those who stay for several years can expect to earn millions of dollars, given the evolution of the price of the Tesla action! This makes their subsequent recruitment complex, as for all profiles from Silicon Valley”, observes Barnaby Noble, an American with an impeccable French accent. The man knows the sector well: he went through the financial management of PSA, before becoming director of the automotive activity of the recruitment firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
His observation helps to understand why relatively few Tesla alumni have joined the ranks of traditional manufacturers, preferring more willingly the world of tech. Some have branched off at Apple, others on the side of Waymo, when the start-up Luminar Technologies recruited Tesla’s legal vice-president, Alan Prescott, at a hefty price, to work on the Lidar, always mocked by Elon Musk… Perhaps also because these former executives have little taste for the idea of reconnecting with the silo methods of the automotive industry. At 34, Felix Godard already has a full CV. It was he who drew the lines for the interior of Porsche’s electric concept car, the Mission E. This accomplishment led to him being spotted and then recruited by Tesla in 2016. Since his departure in 2019 from the Los Angeles, the designer chose to chain experiences in start-ups, to land at the French Hopium. “At Tesla, I worked directly with engineers, whereas the other manufacturers have studio engineers to bridge the gap with the designers. I had never observed such close proximity between the professions before. This is hyper enriching. It is not easy to return to another approach”, testifies the designer, who was dispatched one fine day by Elon Musk to sketch a corset for his companion at the time, the singer Grimes… An extravagance whose South African businessman has the secret.
A step ahead of the electric
Consequence: many choose to found their start-up. In the production of electric cars, of course, but also in areas that large groups are still struggling to master. On the strength of the experience acquired in the management of the supply chain of Tesla, Paolo Cerruti and Peter Carlsson co-founded Northvolt. The batteries they produce are intended to equip the electric cars of their shareholder Volkswagen, as well as BMW and Volvo. One hell of a wallet! After a two-year hiatus at Audi, and another, shorter one, within the young shoot Faraday Future, Philippe Chain created another battery manufacturer: Verkor. Among the six founders of this tricolor start-up, Christophe Mille also comes from the ranks of Tesla. Their first feats of arms: having convinced Renault to become a shareholder of Verkor. And having persuaded him to reserve the majority of the production of the future gigafactory in Dunkirk (North) to equip his high-end cars. Co-founder of Tesla, Jeffrey Brian Straubel has also left the Tesla outboard, after fifteen long years of good and loyal service. A longevity record for a builder where you last a couple of years, at best, before coming out wrung out, even downright traumatized in the case of some women, as told in the book-investigation by journalists Béatrice Mathieu and Emmanuel Botta devoted to Elon Musk…
Nicknamed JB Straubel, the American now aims to deploy a circular supply chain for batteries, via the company Redwood Materials. “Battery, ‘software defined vehicle’ specialists [NDLR : les voitures définies autour du logiciel, souvent présentées comme la prochaine révolution de l’automobile] or charging infrastructure are highly sought after. Gold Tesla is ahead on all these themes”, puts forward Carl Azar, headhunter for Russell Reynolds Associates. What to offer a head start to the companies of the ex-Tesla. Luc Leroy for his part wants to contribute to the reindustrialization of Europe. Three years ago, he created the company Full Speed Automation. His vocation: “to develop ‘no code’ solutions to facilitate the automation of factories. Based in the Californian town of Los Gatos, the engineer’s place of residence, the young company has settled in Angers (Maine-et-Loire), which it wants to make its global research and development center. Its solution has already piqued the curiosity of SMEs from the world of batteries, but also recycling and luxury. All that remains is to convert these first expressions of interest into hard and fast contracts. After the “Paypal mafia”, from which Elon Musk came, the “Tesla mafia” has all the cards in hand to carve out a place of choice in the industry of tomorrow.