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Rivian’s Stock Slide Deepens as Operating Chief Steps Down

Dbeglor

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Less than two years and "retiring". Yea, that's not the least bit suspicious.
When you take into account that he effectively came out of retirement to join Rivian (according to DuckTruck's personal conversation with him), it's not suspicious in the least. It's entirely conceivable that the plan from the beginning was to bring someone on to shepherd them through a phase that included getting ready for production and IPO, but that once that was complete, it would be time for a different skill set. It would also explain why there was no other official/formal communication, because it was truly not an unexpected event. SEC rules would likely require formal disclosure of an unexpected departure at that level, regardless of how they wanted to spin it.

Everything doesn't have to be nefarious and gloom.
 
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Taycanfrank

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It's pretty funny. You have one side that says "the sky is falling" and then the other side that says "not only is the sky not falling, but it's a beautiful, sunny blue!" when the reality is it's probably kind of cloudy and drizzling.

Having multiple members of your leadership team leave at a critical juncture is never a good look. Regardless of what happened, it's always an indictment of the company; either the employee didn't like working there or you made a bad decision to hire them in the first place.

Kind of funny people pointing out his background in motorcycles like that's why he's leaving. Pretty sure RJ had access to his linkedin and resume to see his experience before hiring him. :CWL:

It's not necessarily a terrible thing that he's leaving but it's certainly not a good thing and it does indicate some issues. Normal growing pains or a bigger issue? Who knows.
 

kylealden

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I had the very good fortune to run into Rod in downtown Normal last Summer.
Thanks for sharing this story! Sounds like a great opportunity and really helps contextualize some of this. I always appreciate your balance of thoughtfulness and discretion when you choose to share these things ?

I had some good conversations with RJ and others at the Seattle event a few years back (when my preorder was a lark and I didn't think anything would come of it) and am constantly kicking myself for not paying more attention!

One plausible explanation for the short stint is that Rod was comfortably retired, but really excited to get something new off the ground, which he had a personal passion for. With that mostly done, he's back to margheritas on the beach. Not saying that's the story, but as ever, we don't have to grasp at straws ?
 

DuckTruck

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Thanks for sharing this story! Sounds like a great opportunity and really helps contextualize some of this. I always appreciate your balance of thoughtfulness and discretion when you choose to share these things ?

I had some good conversations with RJ and others at the Seattle event a few years back (when my preorder was a lark and I didn't think anything would come of it) and am constantly kicking myself for not paying more attention!

One plausible explanation for the short stint is that Rod was comfortably retired, but really excited to get something new off the ground, which he had a personal passion for. With that mostly done, he's back to margheritas on the beach. Not saying that's the story, but as ever, we don't have to grasp at straws ?
Kyle,

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think your last paragraph is spot on. BTW, I was at that same event in Seattle (the early show) and it really set the hook for me.

Be well! ✌
 

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Zoidz

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Less than two years and "retiring". Yea, that's not the least bit suspicious.
Because no one ever retired after two years for medical or other personal reasons?
 

crashmtb

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It's not necessarily a terrible thing that he's leaving but it's certainly not a good thing and it does indicate some issues. Normal growing pains or a bigger issue? Who knows.
it is not uncommon for people in these sorts of roles to unretire for a short contract when an interesting opportunity comes along. Help out a company, solve some puzzles, then back to golfing or whatever… I’ve worked with a few.
 

Temerarius

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it is not uncommon for people in these sorts of roles to unretire for a short contract when an interesting opportunity comes along. Help out a company, solve some puzzles, then back to golfing or whatever… I’ve worked with a few.
My CVP retired back in 2012, then came back to fix a complete shit show in 2017, then retired again in 2021.

Leadership often "unretires" and "retires", and can often be used as a shock force to fix broken stuff or to handle a specific phase of a project (at which they accel at).

Yeah, the timing isn't great from a news cycle standpoint, but from a project standpoint, it may have made perfect sense. As we don't have a direct seat at the table, with direct, first-hand understanding, it's all conjecture.
 

Tim-in-CA

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I thought you guys would get a kick out of this, I was just looking at Yahoo news and I saw this and it nearly gave me a heart attack!! I was like “No! Not RJ too!!” ??
7DFF2988-4396-4EF6-ADED-E752A1802F60.jpeg
Plus that pic of the "hot rod" burnout (Older Charger/Camaro or something) is REALLY ridiculous and lazy on their part. At LEAST put a relevant picture!!
 
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Denver_Paulie

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it is not uncommon for people in these sorts of roles to unretire for a short contract when an interesting opportunity comes along. Help out a company, solve some puzzles, then back to golfing or whatever… I’ve worked with a few.

Wait, someone with common sense commenting on this thread? I thought it was reserved for the "sky is falling" and "Rivian is self destructing" crowd? OMG the COO is leaving after two years, it is a sign the company will never deliver another vehicle again!!!!!!

Jesus, people, get a grip. You don't hear about this type of departure at a legacy auto manufacturer because no cares, and it means nothing. Tesla has replaced every senior role in the organization at least twice in the past 5 years, but they are doing incredibly well. This type of start up business will cause burn out, and quickly.

The same will happen at Rivian. People will come and people will go. Their stock price will rise, and their stock price will fall. $hit happens. Stop obsession about daily events and focus on long term trends.

Rant over!! Cheers!
 

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godfodder0901

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Tim-in-CA

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These articles are increasingly AI generated, including the images.
Did A Robot Write This? How AI Is Impacting Journalism (forbes.com)
Almost as bad as all of the YouTube "reviews" that are just regurgitated video with computer generated text to speech narration. Just wait until deep-fake video gets better, it will get to a point where it will be very hard to tell what you are watching is actually real or happened in real life. The next 10 years are going to be SCARY as AI/nefarious parties will be able to generate a video of someone "saying" whatever they want!! Truth and fiction will be indistinguishable
 

Taycanfrank

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it is not uncommon for people in these sorts of roles to unretire for a short contract when an interesting opportunity comes along. Help out a company, solve some puzzles, then back to golfing or whatever… I’ve worked with a few.
This is certainly true and very possible. The timing seems odd to me, though, but who knows. Even if planned it always makes me nervous seeing the "responsibilities absorbed by the team" line. I have a feeling the team over at Rivian is working pretty darn hard as is.

It's not really that big of deal either way, but it's also something Rivian to talk about in a uh... "slump" of Rivian news. :CWL:
 

kylealden

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BTW, I was at that same event in Seattle (the early show) and it really set the hook for me.
Inviting my wife to that event may have been the single highest ROI choice in our relationship that didn’t involve a ring ?
 

crashmtb

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This is certainly true and very possible. The timing seems odd to me, though, but who knows. Even if planned it always makes me nervous seeing the "responsibilities absorbed by the team" line. I have a feeling the team over at Rivian is working pretty darn hard as is.

It's not really that big of deal either way, but it's also something Rivian to talk about in a uh... "slump" of Rivian news. :CWL:
make sense to me that he’d be set to depart at the end of 2021, after all, rivian was supposed to be well into production by now.

Not having a replacement in the wings isn’t terrifically surprising either, as the people who were all going to retire 15 years ago finally are…
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