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Marc Tarpenning (born June 1, 1964) is an American engineer and technology entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla Inc. with Martin Eberhard in 2003.[1][2][3][4] Tarpenning served as the chief financial officer (CFO) and vice president of engineering of Tesla.[5]
Marc Tarpenning | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 1, 1964 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BA) |
| Occupation | Co-founder of Tesla |
| Website | https://marctarpenning.com/ |
Marc Tarpenning was born in Sacramento, California, on June 1, 1964.[6] He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained a B.A. degree in computer science in 1985.[7]
After graduating from Berkeley, Tarpenning spent several years working for Textron in Saudi Arabia.[7][5][8] Tarpenning then developed software and firmware products for several companies, including Seagate Technology and Bechtel, and later served as vice president of engineering at Packet Design, a network technology company.[6] In 1997, Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard founded NuvoMedia, a company that built an early e-book reader, the RocketBook, in 1998.[7] In 2000, Gemstar–TV Guide International acquired NuvoMedia for $187 million.[7][9][6][8]
In 2003, Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard collaborated again and founded Tesla Motors (now Tesla Inc.). The two co-founders funded the company until early 2004, when Elon Musk led the company's $6.5 million Series A financing round in February 2004 and became the chairman of the board.[10] Tarpenning continued to serve as the chief financial officer (CFO) and the Vice President of Electrical Engineering in Tesla until 2008.[5][11]
After leaving Tesla, Tarpenning began to serve as an adviser or member of advisory board of several companies, including his alma mater (Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) and SkyDeck, UC Berkeley) [7][12][13] and Spero Ventures, a VC firm.[14]
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