[Mike B]

The CTO takes his whole team and leaves in February. The head of product and engineering “disappears” a few month before production starts and is quickly replaced by a former Tesla guy who was basically currently unemployed. In both cases there was no statement from Rivian saying goodbye and good luck makes me think both walked out. The COO also left early this year. Storm clouds ahead will we ever see a quality pickup from them? Prediction - Unlikely

 

[EyeOnRivian]

If you ever been part of a startup company and/or a company that goes through a huge influx of new employees, it's not at all unprecedented to have staff turnover. It's called growing pains, at least one aspect of it. Is it unfortunate? Yes. It wastes time, resources and certainly brings into question those who are responsible for hiring these people and their judgement of how well these employees will fit into their team. But sometimes things just don't work out. Successful companies will rip the band-aid off, learn from the experience and keep moving forward.

As for why no statement from Rivian, the last I checked they are still a private company and are under no obligation to make a statement. It certainly would not help their cause in any manner to air their dirty laundry, especially now with the pending lawsuit.

Now, this is not to say we should not keep on eye on what's going on with Rivian. However, I would urge caution in contributing to "potential" FUD when it may be simply growing pains of a company trying to do something that's extremely difficult, not to mention during a pandemic, by bringing a world class EV to market.

 

[MilesK]

The CTO takes his whole team and leaves in February. The head of product and engineering “disappears” a few month before production starts and is quickly replaced by a former Tesla guy who was basically currently unemployed. In both cases there was no statement from Rivian saying goodbye and good luck makes me think both walked out. The COO also left early this year. Storm clouds ahead will we ever see a quality pickup from them? Prediction - Unlikely

Because Rivian is the only company that has high employee turnover right?

Tesla's troubles keeping executives are well known, and a Wall Street analyst says the turnover rate is especially high among employees who report directly to CEO Elon Musk.

About 44 percent of Musk's direct reports have changed over annually, Bloomberg reported last week, citing an analysis by Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein. That compares with about 9 percent on average for direct reports to CEOs at other major tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Amazon and Facebook.

A list compiled by Business Insider this month names 32 executives who have left Tesla since January 2018.

Overall executive turnover at Tesla is about 27 percent annually, the highest among seven companies to which Sacconaghi compared the automaker.

Tesla burning through execs like cash

Its executive turnover is about 27 percent annually, the highest among seven companies in a comparison by a Wall Street analyst.

www.autonews.com

 

[MuddyBoots]

The CTO takes his whole team and leaves in February. The head of product and engineering “disappears” a few month before production starts and is quickly replaced by a former Tesla guy who was basically currently unemployed. In both cases there was no statement from Rivian saying goodbye and good luck makes me think both walked out. The COO also left early this year. Storm clouds ahead will we ever see a quality pickup from them? Prediction - Unlikely

Any good startup makes exec changes as they scale up, because the kind of execs you need for an early stage company typically have different skill sets from the kind you need when you've got billions in the bank and are ramping up to production.

The CTO, Jim Bell, had been at Rivian a whopping 9 months and had no automotive background, his area was mobile devices and wifi. His previous gig was at a company that produced smart meters for public utility companies. I have no inside information, but sure sounds like he wasn't a great fit.

Rivian did make statements.

"Rivian says that Jim Morgan, the startup’s original COO, will continue to advise CEO RJ Scaringe, and that he initially came aboard as a placeholder until it found a permanent replacement."

“From time to time, it’s important for any performance-focused and fast-growing company to streamline its organization to improve effectiveness,” Amy Mast, Rivian’s public relations director, said in a statement. “Rivian remains healthy, growing, and focused on the launch of our products.

 

[Coastie20]

If only Apple was as transparent with their turn over....
Sometimes you just get fired while standing next to the company owner in the elevator... ;-)