Deepak Ahuja, a former Tesla veteran of Indian descent, has been appointed by drone delivery and logistics startup Zipline as its first chief business and finance officer.
Ahuja will begin in his new position at Zipline on September 30 after leaving his position as CFO at Alphabet’s healthcare division Verily Life Sciences.
Details about Former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja hired by Zipline:
Ahuja said in a statement on Friday that he “rarely sees this amount of disruption & impact coupled with the world-class technology that Zipline’s team is producing.”
He continued, “The company’s immediate logistics solution was created out of a deep understanding of what their clients need, and has already brought enormous value to people across the world by saving lives, time, and money as well as lowering the environmental effect of deliveries on the planet.
For corporations, governments, and consumers, Zipline creates, produces, and manages the largest instant logistics and delivery system in the world.
Ahuja was the CFO of Tesla before to joining Verily (which recently raised $1 billion from Alphabet), where he handled the company’s transition to profitability among other things.
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, experienced a setback when he left the company in 2019, just as he was preparing to export his electric vehicles to India.
Ahuja made a few flights to India in order to find out from the government and other important parties whether there is a desire to allow Tesla to do business there.
In 2008, Ahuja, a seasoned finance expert with 15 years of experience at Ford Motor Company, became the company’s first CFO.
He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) with a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering, the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University with a master’s degree, and Carnegie Mellon University with an MBA.
According to Keller Rinaudo, CEO and co-founder of Zipline, “Ahuja offers decades of expertise helping to establish transformative and disruptive firms in the transportation and health industries.”
In addition, Rinaudo said, “His track record will have a huge impact as we continue to grow our reach, serve new categories, and establish a long-term business.”
To date, Zipline has flown more than 25 million autonomous miles while delivering more than 380,000 packages containing more than 3.5 million merchandise.
