🪑 Denholm's double duty
Robyn Denholm's position as chair of both Tesla and Australia's Tech Council puts her right in the middle of a clash between US tech interests and Australia's digital sovereignty.
"If I had a magic wand, Twitter wouldn't exist … [Elon Musk]'s a contrarian, and you can't be a contrarian part of the time, so you've got to work with that as a board," Robyn Denholm told Business Insider in May last year.
It was a remarkably candid admission from the Tesla chair, who rarely speaks publicly about Elon Musk, and it highlighted her approach to the uncomfortable dilemma at the heart of her professional existence.
Denholm has mastered the art of corporate diplomacy under extraordinary circumstances. Yet her balancing act at Tesla is increasingly at odds with her other significant role as the chair of the Tech Council of Australia (TCA).
Before her contentious chairmanship at Tesla, Denholm built an impressive corporate resume, with executive positions at Telstra and Juniper Networks and later as an operating partner at Blackbird Ventures.
