JB Straubel

Co-founder & former CTO

Jeffrey B. Straubel (born 1975) joined Tesla as its fifth employee in 2004 and is a named co-founder. As CTO for 15 years he led battery cell design, the supply chain, and the original Gigafactory concept through the Model 3 ramp, and is listed on many of Tesla’s battery patents. He now leads Redwood Materials, which he founded to recycle lithium-ion batteries, and rejoined Tesla’s board in 2023. As the engineer who arguably understood Tesla’s batteries better than anyone, Straubel shaped the cell chemistry, packs and the original Gigafactory model that made affordable long-range EVs possible. Redwood, now a major player in the battery-materials supply chain, closes the loop he helped open — recovering critical metals to feed the next generation of cells, the recycling piece many critics said the EV transition would never solve.