Who is Omead Afshar? Elon Musk's confidant and Tesla's ‘powerful executive’ leaves EV maker

Omead Afshar, an important executive at Tesla Inc and one of the closest confidants to billionaire Elon Musk, has resigned from his role in the electric vehicle maker, reported news agency Bloomberg on Thursday, 26 June 2025, citing people aware of the development. 

According to the report, the news of Afshar's exit from the company was internally circulated among some employees. Afshar, Elon Musk and Tesla did not respond to the queries sent by the news agency.

Who is Omead Afshar?

Omead Afshar is an American of Iranian origin who joined Tesla as a project manager and became one of billionaire Elon Musk's closest confidants over the years.

Afshar finished his bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of California, Irvine. After graduating in 2009, his first job was as an instructor at Mammoth Mountain in California, according to an IBT report. 

In 2011, Afshar worked in the medical field as he joined St. Jude Medical as a product engineer and spent the next six years in several leadership roles.

Omead Afshar joined Tesla in 2017 as a project manager in CEO Musk's office, and over the years gained his trust while rising the ranks in the company.

According to the news portal's report, one of Omead Afshar's key achievements was to oversee the construction of Tesla's 10-million-square-foot Gigafactory in Texas.

His roles eventually branched out of Tesla. In 2022, he was promoted to become the Vice President at SpaceX, contributing to an important role in managing the firm's operations with Musk's long-term vision, as per the report.

According to the Bloomberg report, Afshar was also promoted to oversee sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe for Tesla.

“I was with Elon nearly every single day during Model 3 hell,” said Afshar in his post on platform X. “This included Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, his birthday, and nearly missing his brother’s wedding,” he said, citing the news agency.

A Fortune report on Thursday, 26 June 2025, claimed that Omead Afshar was fired by Elon Musk amid the declining sales in both the North American and European regions.