Several of Rivian’s top executives are leaving the electric vehicle startup

Rivian’s stock has also fallen since then Huge initial public offering In November 2021, down nearly 79% through Tuesday’s close.

The executives who left the company were among the longest-serving employees at Rivian. They include Randy Frank, vice president of body and interior engineering, and Steve Goronski, vice president in charge of parts procurement. They both left at the beginning of this year.

Mr. Frank joined Rivian in 2019 from

Ford Motor company

Mr. Gawronski joined in 2018 from autonomous vehicle startup Zoox.

Another early employee, Patrick Hunt, a senior director on the strategy team, left the company late last year. Mr. Hunt joined Rivian in 2015.

Rivian General Counsel Neil Citron left in September after 4 1/2 years with the company founded in 2009.

A Rivian spokeswoman said steps were taken to ensure the startup had the talent and staff needed to ramp up production. The company declined to comment on the individual circumstances of the departure.

“We continue to attract global talent to our company because our business needs to change,” she said.

The departures represent the latest shake-up at the top of Rivian’s segment, which It brought in new executives To supervise the company’s manufacturing operations. The company marred its first full year of factory production supply chain problems and difficulties in obtaining Assembly line to run at full speed.

Tim Fallon, former president of

Nissan Motor company

Rivian’s corporate plant in Canton, Missouri, was hired in early 2022 to operate Rivian’s sole plant in Normal, Illinois.

In June, Rivian appointed Frank Klein as Chief Operating Officer, from the contract manufacturer

Magna Steyr.

In a November email to employees reviewed by the Journal, Mr. Klein wrote that with Mr. Goronsky’s exit, the company was taking the opportunity to make some organizational changes to ensure it could support the increased complexity the group would deal with in the years to come.

Mr. Klein added that Rivian was reorganizing its supply chain management, appointing a vice president responsible for supply chain and logistics, and another responsible for parts procurement.

It was also announced that Rivian has hired tool maker Andreas Reuter

Stanley Black & Decker company

To oversee supply chain logistics for Rivian.

The changes at the top of Rivian come as it tries to transform from an upstart company looking to raise capital into a massive manufacturer with ambitions to become one of the world’s largest automakers.

Its first all-electric models, the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV, are relatively new. The company has only been building cars at its Illinois plant since late 2021. Prior to that, it had never built or retailed a single car.

As part of its expansion, Rivian has gone on a hiring spree, growing rapidly from about 1,200 workers in 2019 to about 14,000 by the summer of last year and only recently beginning to create existing jobs across several companies.

In April, Anissa Kamadouli-Costa was named Chief Sustainability Officer from jewelry maker Tiffany.

As Rivian struggles to increase factory production, it has come under pressure to cut back on spending. Last summer the company Lay off about 6% of its workforce and cut spending on many of its programmes.

The company has focused on bringing production of its current range of vehicles up to speed. It also makes an electric delivery van, which it sells to Amazon.com Inc.

In an example of the young automaker’s changing priorities, Rivian has suspended negotiations with Mercedes-Benz AG over a proposed car-truck partnership in Europe, which has been an expansion target for CEO RJ Scaringe. Rivian said the decision came after a reassessment of its growth opportunities.

The company recorded a net loss of $5 billion to The first nine months of 2022The cash pile fell to $13.8 billion at the end of September, down from $15.46 billion in June. Rivian is scheduled to report its full-year results on February 28th.

Write to Sean McLain at [email protected] and Nora Eckert at [email protected]