Jared Birchall is regarded as one of the most important figures behind Elon Musk’s success, also managing the billionaire’s extensive network of relationships. He is seen as Musk’s “butler” as he runs the family company Excession. This company handles everything from arranging loans, hiring bodyguards, buying and selling homes, to managing the eccentric and controversial ideas of the Tesla owner.
The One Chosen by Elon Musk
A graduate of Brigham Young University, Birchall began his career working at Goldman Sachs in 1999 as a financial analyst, according to his LinkedIn profile. He later joined Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles, where he worked for about a decade as a wealth manager.
However, Merrill Lynch fired Birchall in 2010 for “behavior that led to a loss of trust from management“, including the act of “sending correspondence to clients without management approval“. But less than a month later, Birchall began working at Morgan Stanley as a wealth manager.
Birchall is a former director at Morgan Stanley. He has spent six years running Musk’s family office and is known to be the one behind the spotlight of the Tesla billionaire. Birchall helped Musk arrange a capital of $46.5 billion in preparation for the plan to take over Twitter.
Unlike his flamboyant boss, Birchall is said to be a quiet and steady operator. According to Raphael Amit, a management professor at Wharton School, Birchall’s multiple roles, including overseeing the family office, demonstrate Elon Musk’s strong trust in this close staff member.
The Butler and Key Assistant to Elon Musk
Birchall began collaborating with Musk about 10 years ago when he served as a client advisor for Morgan Stanley in Southern California. He supported the billionaire in arranging hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from investment banks when Musk needed cash. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk later hired Birchall.
Jared Birchall is one of the most influential figures in Elon Musk’s business empire. This is because he is the director of the family office, which is the only entity managing the majority of the Tesla billionaire’s wealth.
In addition to holding prominent roles at The Boring Company and Neuralink, Musk’s “right-hand man” is also a board member at the Musk Foundation and several other important organizations.
Birchall has taken on more complex roles than a typical family office manager, such as building good relationships with major banks that Musk frequently borrows from. This is key to Musk’s growing wealth, as he borrows to fund new business ventures instead of selling shares in Tesla.
He arranged a $12.5 billion loan for the South African billionaire by mortgaging part of Musk’s shares in Tesla. This deal elevated Musk’s status but also drew public attention to Birchall.
Additionally, Jared Birchall is responsible for managing Musk’s schedule. He is entrusted with everything from organizing transportation to the billionaire’s plane to various business projects, hiring nannies for the kids, and arranging security for the billionaire.
Birchall is reported to earn a salary ranging from $1 million to $3 million, according to the New York Post. However, Birchall’s compensation could be much higher, depending on how much responsibility he takes on, especially if it includes directly choosing stocks or hedge funds for investment.
A Relationship Beyond Work
Birchall’s duties extend beyond managing the world’s richest billionaire’s business affairs. Evidence of this is his involvement in protecting the Tesla billionaire’s image during controversies.
He is not only responsible for important loans to secure the Twitter deal (which is currently on hold) but also supports Musk in the smallest tasks.
In 2018, Elon Musk was embroiled in a lawsuit from British cave diver Vernon Unsworth. A social media post on Twitter deemed defamatory by billionaire Musk was written on July 15, 2018, after Unsworth gave an interview with CNN, in which he criticized Musk for “pulling publicity stunts” when offering to help rescue 13 members of a youth soccer team trapped in the Tham Luang cave in July 2018.
Jared Birchall directly participated in this lawsuit. When asked to testify, Birchall told the court that he had a “protective instinct for Musk”. As a result, Elon Musk won the case.
Tayyab Mohamed, co-founder of Agreus Group, which manages family offices for billionaires, noted that Birchall and Musk are a “dynamic duo”.
“If you don’t fit culturally and don’t have synergy with the workplace, you won’t last long. I’m sure Jared is very good at what he does, but what’s more important is that he fits well with Elon Musk,” Mohamed commented.
According to Business Insider, Yahoo