Last year, the carmaker announced several longtime directors who are close to Musk would leave the board, and board members' terms would be shortened to allow shareholders to vote more regularly on their re-election. In late 2018, Ms Denholm resigned from Telstra to take the chair at Tesla amid controversy as Mr Musk was forced to step down as chairman following a regulatory investigation into his tweet in 2018 stating he had secured financing to take the company private. In January, Tesla board members other than Musk settled a shareholder lawsuit over the company's acquisition of another company owned by Mr Musk, SolarCity Corp.