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Robyn Denholm
Robyn Denholm
	Denholm in 2018
Born	Robyn M. Sammut; 27 May 1963 (age 61); Milperra, New South Wales, Australia
Alma mater	University of Sydney; University of New South Wales;
Occupations	Chartered accountant; Chief financial officer;
Title	Chair of the Board of Tesla, Inc.
Term	November 2018 – Present
Predecessor	Elon Musk

Robyn M. Denholm (née Sammut; born 27 May 1963) is an Australian business executive. In November 2018, Denholm succeeded Elon Musk as chair of Tesla, Inc.^[2]

Early life

Denholm was born 27 May 1963 in Milperra, New South Wales.^[1] Her parents met and married in Tripoli, Libya, immigrating to Australia in the 1950s. She has Maltese and Italian ancestry on her father's side and Maltese and Scottish ancestry on her mother's side; her father spoke five languages.^[3]

Denholm grew up in the Sydney suburb of Lugarno with her older brother and younger sister. Her father worked as a welder and her mother was a ledger machine operator. When she was seven years old, the family purchased a service station and workshop in Milperra.^[3] Denholm handled the financial accounts, repaired cars, pumped petrol and became interested in cars.^[4] She attended Peakhurst High School.^[3]

Denholm graduated from the University of Sydney with a bachelor's degree in economics, and from the University of New South Wales in 1999 with a master's degree in commerce.^[4]^[5] Denholm is a chartered accountant (generally equivalent to a certified public accountant in the United States) and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.^[6]

Career

After graduating, Denholm worked in accountancy for Arthur Andersen in Sydney.^[4] This was followed by seven years at Toyota Australia.^[4]^[5]^[7] Denholm worked at the IT companies Sun Microsystems,^[7]^[5] and then Juniper Networks for nine years in finance and operations roles, rising to chief financial officer (CFO) of Juniper.^[4]^[5]^[7] In 2014, Denholm became a non-executive director on the board of directors of Tesla, Inc.^[7] In the following four years as a non-executive director of Tesla, including as chair of the audit committee, Denholm received US$17 million in Tesla stock options.^[4]

In early 2017, Denholm was appointed as chief operations officer (COO) of Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms company,^[8] subsequently becoming CFO on 1 October 2018.^[9] In November 2018, Denholm gave notice of resignation after only five weeks in the role as a result of stepping into the role of chair of Tesla Inc. Telstra CEO Andy Penn announced that Denholm would end her responsibilities as CFO at Telstra on 6 May 2019.^[7]^[10]

In January 2021, Denholm became an operating partner at Blackbird Ventures, a venture capital firm.^[2]

In 2023, she ranked 80th in the Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women".^[11] She was also listed in the Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women in 2023.^[12]