Tesla has named Australian telecom executive Robyn Denholm to replace Elon Musk as chair of the board.  US financial regulators forced the change on the company to settle fraud claims.

Ms. Denholm has been on the Tesla board as an independent director since 2014.  She has also had experience at other high-tech companies in California's Silicon Valley including Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems.  She also worked for Arthur Anderson in Sydney and the Japanese carmaker Toyota.

Denholm was just made CFO at Telstra a month ago, but has given the company her six month notice. 

Her new role at Tesla came about because Mr. Musk's eccentric behavior on social media.  His tweeting of an idea to try to take the company private caused turmoil with share prices, which is how the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) got involved.  Accusing Musk of misleading investors, the SEC fined Musk and the company US$20 Million each and required him to step down as chairman of the board.  He remains the electric car maker's chief executive.