Jared Birchall

Last updated
Jared Birchall
Born
Jared John Birchall

1974 (age 49–50)
Modesto, California, US
Education Brigham Young University (BA)
Title
  • CEO of Neuralink
  • Managing Director of Excession LLC
Board member of
Children5

Jared John Birchall (born 1974) is an American business executive and a former banker. He is the chief executive officer of neurotechnology company Neuralink and the wealth manager of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk since 2016. As Musk's adviser, right-hand man, and fixer, Birchall holds executive or administrative positions in other endeavors of his including the Boring Company, Musk Foundation, xAI, and managing his family office.

Contents

Early life and education

Jared John Birchall was born in 1974 in Modesto, California. [1] As one of 11 children, his family toured California as part of a musical group called "The Birchall Family Singers". [2] He earned an Eagle Scout rank in his youth. [1] He entered the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in 1992 and graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Before graduating, he also spent two years as a missionary. [3] [4]

Career

1999–2016: Investment banks

He started his career in finance at Goldman Sachs in New York City as a financial analyst in 1999. The next year, he moved to Los Angeles to work at Merrill Lynch & Co. as a private wealth adviser. [5] According to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records, he was terminated in 2010 for "sending correspondence to a client without management approval". Between 2010 and 2016, he was a senior vice president of private banking at Morgan Stanley. [6] [7]

2016–present: Working for Elon Musk

Birchall got acquainted with business magnate Elon Musk during his tenure at Morgan Stanley when as a client adviser he was involved in arranging nine-figure amount in bank loans at a time when Musk was low on funds. [2] [3] Musk hired him out of Morgan Stanley in 2016 to set up and manage his family office—Excession LLC. [5]

When neurotechnology company Neuralink was founded by Musk in 2016, corporate filings listed Birchall as its chief executive, chief financial officer and president. [8] According to Bloomberg News, he is not involved in daily operations of the company and that his name was listed on the filings for legal convenience. [5] In 2018, Birchall was named as a director and executive of Boring Company—a tunnel construction services company also founded by Musk. [9] [4] He is also a member of the board for Musk's philanthropic foundation and Ad Astra—a Texas-based online experimental school founded by Musk for the children of SpaceX employees, including his kids. [10]

Dubbed as Musk's personal fixer and right-hand man, [5] [11] [3] Birchall has also been tasked with managing itinerary, hiring bodyguards, and selling homes for Musk. Slate reported in 2018 that he was CEO of Foundation Security—a detective and armored car services company. [12] During that year, in the lead up to a defamation case against Musk by a British caver following the Tham Luang cave rescue, Birchall paid over $50,000 of Musk's funds to hire a private investigator, who turned out to be a convicted fraud, to dig up dirt on the caver. [13] Birchall stated in court deposition he had an "instinct to protect Musk". [6]

In 2021, Birchall opposed the idea of having Igor Kurganov—a professional poker player without a financial background and an advocate for effective altruism who had quickly become close to Musk during the COVID-19 pandemic and entrusted with co-managing the foundation—handle charity requests. Musk terminated Kurganov the following year after Birchall reported that Kurganov had drawn the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation over foreign interference concerns. [2]

He joined the board of the Dogecoin Foundation—a nonprofit that advocates the Dogecoin ecosystem—as legal and financial adviser in August 2021. [14] [4] In a July 2023 court filing, Birchall declared that he exclusively manages Musk's cryptocurrency trades. [15]

He played a critical role in Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022. He was heavily involved in the buyout negotiations and was in charge of dealing with the big banks to arrange multi-billion dollar loans that were key to closing the deal before a court-imposed deadline, which otherwise would have forced a trial. As Twitter underwent massive cost-cutting under Musk, Birchall was responsible for strategizing layoffs and approving expenditures for services. [16] [17] [18]

Birchall incorporated Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI in 2023, where he is listed as secretary of the company. [19] [20] According to Fortune , he is also the CFO of the firm. [21]

Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential elections, in which Musk was a major financial backer, Birchall has advised the Trump transition team on space policy and artificial intelligence, contributed to the formation of councils for AI development and cryptocurrency policy, and interviewed several candidates for positions at the State Department. [22]

Personal life

Birchall is married and has five children. He is a practicing Latter-day Saint. [11] He moved to Austin, Texas in 2020, [5] prior to relocation he lived in Stevenson Ranch, California where he was a counselor to the local church's bishop. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Moreno, Sarah Rivas (August 20, 2022). "Jared Birchall, el Pepito Grillo tras los arrebatos de Musk" [Jared Birchall, Jiminy Cricket after Musk's outbursts]. El País (in Spanish). ISSN   0213-4608. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Copeland, Rob (July 16, 2022). "Elon Musk's Inner Circle Rocked by Fight Over His $230 Billion Fortune" . The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   1042-9840. Archived from the original on July 19, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Cuccinello, Hayley (May 10, 2022). "Elon Musk's money wingman, Jared Birchall, is a Mormon ex-Morgan Stanley banker who's never even tweeted" . Insider . Archived from the original on May 10, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Anand, Chitra (June 2, 2022). "Meet Elon Musk's secretive right-hand man Jared Birchall". Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Alexander, Sophia; Baker, Liana (May 6, 2022). "Elon Musk's Fixer Is Quietly Tending the World's Biggest Fortune" . Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022.
  6. 1 2 Jin, Hyunjoo; Marshall, Elizabeth Dilts (April 26, 2022). "Funding obscured: The family office behind Musk's $44 billion Twitter buyout" . Reuters. Archived from the original on July 21, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Broker Check Report: Jared John Birchall" (PDF). Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 21, 2023. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  8. ↑ Mac, Ryan; Metz, Cade; Conger, Kate (May 3, 2022). "'I Don't Really Have a Business Plan': How Elon Musk Wings It" . The New York Times . ISSN   1553-8095. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023.
  9. ↑ Bhuiyan, Johana (April 16, 2018). "Elon Musk is giving more than $100 million to fund his tunnel startup, The Boring Company". Vox . Archived from the original on March 29, 2023.
  10. ↑ Carlson, Kara (December 13, 2022). "Mapping Musklandia: A guide to Elon Musk-related activity in the Austin area" . Austin American-Statesman . ISSN   1553-8451. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022.
  11. 1 2 Toone, Trent (July 19, 2022). "Who is Jared Birchall? BYU grad, Latter-day Saint is top adviser to Elon Musk, world's richest man". Deseret News . ISSN   0745-4724. Archived from the original on November 18, 2022.
  12. ↑ Glaser, April; Mak, Aaron; Oremus, Will (August 17, 2018). "The Other Brains Behind Tesla and SpaceX". Slate . ISSN   1091-2339. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023.
  13. ↑ Marshall, Aarian (October 8, 2019). "Elon Musk's Mouth, and Tweets, Land Him in Trouble Again" . Wired . ISSN   1078-3148. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023.
  14. ↑ Quiroz-Gutierrez, Marco (August 18, 2021). "Ethereum founder and an adviser to Elon Musk join Dogecoin board" . Fortune . ISSN   2169-155X. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021.
  15. ↑ Frankel, Alison (July 17, 2023). "Musk, Tesla go on attack against Dogecoin plaintiffs lawyer". Reuters. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023.
  16. ↑ Isaac, Mike; Mac, Ryan (November 22, 2022). "As Elon Musk Cuts Costs at Twitter, Some Bills Are Going Unpaid" . The New York Times . ISSN   1553-8095. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022.
  17. ↑ Isaac, Mike; Mac, Ryan; Conger, Kate (October 31, 2022). "Elon Musk, Plus a Circle of Confidants, Tightens Control Over Twitter" . The New York Times . ISSN   1553-8095. Archived from the original on April 13, 2023.
  18. ↑ Feeley, Jef (October 10, 2022). "Musk Claims Twitter Ordered Whistle-Blower to Destroy Evidence" . Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on July 21, 2023.
  19. ↑ Hammond, George (July 12, 2023). "Elon Musk launches xAI in challenge to dominance of ChatGPT owner" . Financial Times . ISSN   0307-1766. Archived from the original on July 13, 2023.
  20. ↑ Viglarolo, Brandon (July 12, 2023). "Elon Musk launches his own xAI biz 'to understand reality'". The Register . Archived from the original on July 21, 2023.
  21. ↑ Beltran, Luisa (November 20, 2023). "xAI org chart: All the top power players at Elon Musk's new OpenAI competitor" . Fortune . Archived from the original on November 20, 2023.
  22. ↑ Schleifer, Theodore; Haberman, Maggie; Swan, Jonathan (December 6, 2024). "The Silicon Valley Billionaires Steering Trump's Transition" . The New York Times . ISSN   1553-8095. Archived from the original on December 7, 2024.
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