TSLA Tesla Inc

By Rolfe Winkler and Tim Higgins 

Tesla Inc. named a pair of new independent directors, including Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison, adding a tech-industry luminary who has been a public booster of the company to a board that has been under fire for its oversight of Chief Executive Elon Musk.

Tesla on Friday said that Mr. Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, the global head of human resources for Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., had joined its board effective the day before. Their addition fulfills the terms of Tesla's September agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims that Mr. Musk misled investors when he claimed this year to have funding to take the Silicon Valley car maker private.

The additions bring to 10 the number of active directors on Tesla's board, which in the past two years has added two other outsiders to a group stacked with longtime Musk allies. An 11th director has been on leave since last year. The additions follow the elevation in November of Robyn Denholm, a veteran finance executive who joined Tesla's board four years ago, to replace Mr. Musk as chairman, which fulfilled another requirement of the regulatory settlement.

Mr. Ellison, who co-founded enterprise software giant Oracle in 1977 and is one of the best known executives in Silicon Valley, has expressed support for Mr. Musk, disclosing in October that Tesla was his second largest personal investment. "I'm very close friends with Elon Musk, and I'm a big investor in Tesla," Mr. Ellison said in comments at an Oracle analysts' conference in which he defended the Tesla chief over questions about his management.

Tesla said on Friday that Mr. Ellison had purchased 3 million shares in Tesla earlier this year.

Ms. Wilson-Thompson was a 17-year veteran of Kellogg Co. before joining Walgreens in 2010. She serves on two other boards, including construction materials company Vulcan Materials Co. and specialty chemicals company Ashland Global Holdings Inc.

Tesla's board said it had conducted a widespread search for the new directors. "In Larry and Kathleen, we have added a preeminent entrepreneur and a human resources leader, both of whom have a passion for sustainable energy," the board said in a statement.

Write to Rolfe Winkler at rolfe.winkler@wsj.com and Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2018 09:18 ET (14:18 GMT)

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