Marc Tarpenning (born June 1, 1964) is an American engineer and technology entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla Inc. with

Martin Eberhard Martin Forest Eberhard (; born 1960) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in July 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was induct ...

in 2003. Tarpenning served as the

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

(CFO) and vice president of engineering of Tesla.

Early life

Marc Tarpenning was born in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, on June 1, 1964. He attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and obtained a B.A. degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1985.

Career

After graduating from Berkeley, Tarpenning spent several years working for

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Kautex, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft and Cessna b ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Tarpenning then developed software and firmware products for several companies, including

Seagate Technology Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American Computer data storage, data storage company. It was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology and commenced business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with ...

and Bechtel, and later served as vice president of engineering at Packet Design, a network technology company. In 1997, Tarpenning and

founded NuvoMedia, a company that built an early e-book reader, the RocketBook, in 1998. In 2000, Gemstar–TV Guide International acquired NuvoMedia for $187 million. In 2003, Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard collaborated again and founded

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...

(now Tesla Inc.). The two co-founders funded the company until early 2004, when

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

led the company's $6.5 million Series A financing round in February 2004 and became the chairman of the board. Tarpenning continued to serve as the

(CFO) and the Vice President of Electrical Engineering in Tesla until 2008. After leaving Tesla, Tarpenning began to serve as an adviser or member of advisory board of several companies, including his alma mater (Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) and SkyDeck,

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

) and Spero Ventures, a VC firm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarpenning, Marc 1964 births Living people American chief executives in the automobile industry Tesla, Inc. people University of California, Berkeley alumni Businesspeople from Sacramento, California American founders of automobile manufacturers