Nine corporate governance experts told news agency Reuters that billionaire Elon Musk’s decision to have children with one of his top executives at Neuralink has pushed the limits of corporate governance norms.
The Tesla CEO, who is chief engineer of SpaceX and co-founder of Neuralink, had twin babies with Shivon Zilis last November.
According to five people familiar with the situation, Zilis told some of her colleagues that she was not involved romantically with Musk.
The 36-year-old, who used to report directly to Musk, conceived the children with him through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
The corporate governance experts said that relationships between supervisors and subordinates are frowned upon at companies and have cost some high-profile CEOs their jobs.
Also read | Elon Musk secretly welcomed twins with one of his top executives: Reports
Interestingly, “personal relationships” and “close personal friendships” between employees are prohibited as per Neuralink’s 62-page handbook.
Referring to the Neuralink code of conduct, Nell Minow, vice chair of corporate governance consultancy ValueEdge Advisors, said “Whatever lawyer wrote this language did not contemplate this situation.”
Although the company wants to avoid conflicts of interest due to relationships between employees, the situation appeared to “fall between the cracks”, according to Minow.
Also read | Who is Shivon Zilis, the mother of Elon Musk’s twins?
In order to eliminate any conflict, employees are advised to disclose such interests to the company’s “people operations manager”.
A source familiar with the company’s handling of the matter told Reuters that Zilis’ description of a non-romantic relationship has been accepted by Neuralink.
Taking the helm at internal and external company meetings, Musk and Zilis both have also continued working together.
Not only have they listed the same address in Texas, but the court filing published by Insider also shows that they asked for the children to take Musk’s last name.
Zilis having children with Musk through IVF should be read as having a “personal relationship” or “close friendship” under Neuralink’s code of conduct, according to four corporate governance experts.
(With inputs from agencies)
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