Aptera's Management Mystery

graham · 09-03-2008, 06:58 PM

Aptera's Management Mystery | Up to Speed | Los Angeles Times

Quote:

Will Aptera Motors Inc. be the latest electric car startup to throw its founder under the bus? The Carlsbad company -- which is taking $500 deposits on an as-yet-unreleased, three-wheel electric car that it says will get 120 miles on a charge and cost less than $30,000 -- said today it had hired a new chief executive, auto industry vet Paul Wilbur. With experience at Ford, Chrysler, sports car maker Saleen and major industry suppliers, Wilbur seems like a competent choice.

The problem is that the company already had a CEO, Steve Fambro, who founded the company five years ago. According to an Aptera spokesman, Fambro will become chief technical officer, since "it is a much better role for him to concentrate on vehicle development."

If this sounds a bit like last year's soap opera at Tesla Motors, we hear you.

stopcrazypp · 09-03-2008, 07:05 PM

Thanks for posting this. Didn't even know Phoenix Motorcars had a similar problem. Seems like this kind of ousting of founders is very common in EV startups.

domenick · 09-04-2008, 05:09 AM

What's with everyone using the expression , "thrown under the bus"? Was there a memo I didn't get or something?

I suspect Fambro was very amenable to being CTO instead of CEO and may have even been behind the decision. I don't have any inside info though. I do know the Aptera fans really like Steve and would be extremely disappointed if he wasn't intimately involved with the company, especially with it's 4 wheel car development.

DDB · 09-04-2008, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by domenick

I do know the Aptera fans really like Steve and would be extremely disappointed if he wasn't intimately involved with the company, especially with it's 4 wheel car development.

Why didn't everyone learn from the Apple-Jobs fiasco...

doug · 09-04-2008, 10:32 AM

Aptera hires Paul Wilbur as new president and CEO, looking to build new plant - AutoblogGreen

graham · 09-04-2008, 11:09 AM

It is very interesting news about building a plant, possibly in Southern California. Who would have thought that California would become an auto manufacturing state?

graham · 09-04-2008, 05:54 PM

Aptera founder: I'm here to stay | Up to Speed | Los Angeles Times

Quote:

To our eyes, it bore a striking resemblance to personnel moves at Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars as the companies grew in size and capital -- moves that ultimately led to the ouster of their founders, Martin Eberhard and Daniel Riegert.

But today Fambro assured us that any similarities are purely coincidental. According to Fambro, the day-to-day running of a company that has about 50 employees and is growing fast was never in his plans. In March, he hired a headhunter, Heidrick & Struggles, to conduct the CEO search, during which time "I had top executives of top car companies in my office interviewing for the position." (Fambro won't name names.)