Being at the top order of the financial and business sector is no joke and Elon Musk has proven that he is quite a pro. From once holding the apex position as the world’s richest person to heading leading companies such as SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, it is a matter of great responsibility and there are a few people with whom that can be shared. For Musk, it is his secretive right-hand person, Jared Birchall, who is also the CEO of Neuralink.
For Elon Musk, Birchall seems to be the most reliable person because he trusts him with his vast wealth. And no doubt, the adept financial analyst has been working with him for over six years and has been managing Musk’s family office Excession LLC, and well, his whims and fancies too. He was reportedly the chief architect of the jaw-dropping Twitter deal.
While a lot about his life and work remains a mystery, this excellent wealth manager has also helped Musk get a handsome loan from Morgan Stanley and other sources that are related to Musk’s stake in Tesla.
Meet Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s right-hand man
Education, early career and personal life
The Brigham Young University alum leads a very secretive life, so much so that a Bloomberg report states that his university classmates cannot even recall him. Yes, he reportedly holds an arts degree.
Birchall started out as a financial analyst in 1999 at Goldman Sachs and then moved to Merrill Lynch in 2000 as a private wealth adviser, and even his colleagues can barely recognise him.
He worked there for nearly a decade before getting sacked in 2010 for “sending correspondence to a client without management approval,” according to the report. That same year he joined Morgan Stanley as a senior vice president and after six years, Birchall joined the Musk family office Excession LLC as its managing director.
But what makes him such an interesting and intriguing figure is that despite a boss who is all over the media for his comments, lifestyle, financial dealings and impulses, Birchall is quite the opposite and maintains a low-key, rather secretive profile. While a lot remains unknown about Jared Birchall, Bloomberg states that he is a devout Mormon and a family person with five children, while Musk is a “thrice-divorced online provocateur” who last had two children with musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes.
Jared Birchall working with Elon Musk
As an active and key player in Musk’s networks and manager of the billionaire’s fortune, Birchall has earned many feathers on his hat.
He is the CEO of Neuralink — a neurotechnology company established by Musk and Max Hodack in 2016 — and as per a 2018 SEC filing report, Birchall is also a director and executive at Musk’s The Boring Company. Additionally, he is one of the board members of the Musk Foundation.
In recent times, he helped Musk get loans and arrange a fund of USD 46.5 billion for the much-talked-about Twitter deal, which includes a USD 12.5 billion loan and others under the name of Musk’s stake in Tesla. Such an action put the high-profile financial manager back in the news. Bloomberg states that Birchall was a key player in Musk’s innermost circle, who was in talks with Wall Street supremos for loans that were necessary for the takeover.
He may have lacked the experience to finalise the deal, but he was instrumental in gathering the banks for the loan with the help of his Morgan Stanley colleagues. The Bloomberg report says that a person close to the deal described Birchall as a “no-nonsense and easy to deal with” kind of person.
Such is his dedication towards Elon Musk that Jared Birchall has proven that he can go to lengths and walk hundreds of extra miles for his boss. In 2018, he was reportedly given the responsibility to find evidence against British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who had openly spoken against Musk’s suggestion of sending a SpaceX submarine for the rescue of a football team from a Thailand cave. Musk grabbed headlines for calling Unsworth a ‘pedo guy’ and in the ensuing defamation lawsuit, Birchall admitted that he used the pseudonym James Brickhouse to hire a private investigator, who later turned out to be a conman. In fact, Musk’s right-hand man also said that he often used the name to dig up discreet information on any matter that Musk wished.
Gear
By Manas Sen Gupta, Dec 03
Birchall manages Musk’s itinerary, fortune and other requirements
Managing the likes, needs and fortune, and being the head of Neuralink as well as handling the assets of one of the world’s richest persons and a notable public figure is not an easy task. And, over the years, Birchall’s responsibilities have also increased manifold.
Musk has always been a flamboyant example of a whimsical and lavish lifestyle — setting off in private jets, selling all his houses and even buying a full-fledged social media platform. This is where Birchall enters as his most trusted confidante.
Bloomberg mentions that the man has the final word in every aspect concerning Elon Musk and his life. From fixing his jets, dealing with the intricacies of selling the houses, arranging his security and even getting nannies for his children, Birchall serves as the one-man army for the Tesla boss.
Managing Musk’s family office
Birchall comes as a rather surprising match that somehow fits perfectly to manage Elon Musk’s family office Excession. This is because a major portion of dealing with a family office is about having a cultural fit and given the diametrically opposite temperament of Birchall and Musk, it seems to be an odd fit.
It is also interesting to note that barring the Twitter acquisition, most of Musk’s investments are in his own companies — Tesla, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., The Boring Company and Neuralink.
Gear
By Manas Sen Gupta, Dec 26
People
By Manas Sen Gupta, Jul 13
Birchall’s salary and wealth
IndiaTimes mentions that while Birchall may have amassed a huge fortune for himself, it is, obviously, nowhere near his boss’s wealth.
The report mentions that the Neuralink CEO and his family moved to a USD 2.25 million home in Austin, Texas in 2020. It reportedly has five bedrooms, an elaborate living space with columns in the foyer and detailed ironwork. A pool and tennis court are also present outside.
While it is difficult to state a ballpark figure as Birchall’s salary, the report says that Morgan Stanley mentions, “the typical head of a large family office earns about USD 1 million to USD 3 million a year. But the compensation can be vastly higher depending on responsibilities, especially if it includes directly managing money by picking stocks or hedge funds to invest in.”
(Main image credit: Nur photo/ Getty Images; Featured image credit: Image credit: SOPA Images/ Getty Images )
