Robyn Denholm's decision to stand aside as chair of the country's pre-eminent tech lobby, the Tech Council of Australia, comes at an critical juncture for the industry it represents — and for her other, bigger job.
Denholm is, of course, the chair of Elon Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla, which has been at the centre of a massive global sharemarket selloff that intensified this week.
Tesla's stock is down 35% so far this year, torching hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, in part due to an escalating customer backlash over Musk's deepening bromance with US President Donald Trump.
A couple of weeks ago, when Capital Brief asked the Tech Council about the increasing conflict between Denholm's role at the lobbying organisation and her position at Tesla, we were told the issue was being discussed within the membership body and that a comment would be forthcoming. It never arrived.
