From arranging massive loans, hiring bodyguards, helping with the?Twitter deal, and leading as CEO of Musk¡¯s billion-dollar neurotechnology company Neuralink, one man has been by Musk¡¯s side through thick and thin.
Neuralink CEO Jared Birchall, who for the past six years has served as the right-hand man for Elon Musk, has been handling the fortune and whimsies of the world's richest person.
For most of Birchall's career, he has largely operated in the background. The 47-year-old is one of the most important people in Musk's circle. He's at the helm of the Tesla CEO's family office, Excession, along with his nascent foundation, and manages many of Musk's personal endeavours. People who know Birchall describe him as a mild-mannered guy who's essentially the fixer for the billionaire who frequently elicits controversy, as per Bloomberg.
And as Musk¡¯s wealth has grown over the years, the role of his right-hand man has grown in complexity. Most recently, his role involved helping buy Twitter with a complex financing package that initially included a record $12.5 billion loan tied to Musk's stake in Tesla.
The $44 billion takeover has elevated Musk's already considerable profile but also focused attention on Birchall, the report mentions.
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Birchall was part of the tiny circle interacting with Wall Street to line up the loans that were key to securing the deal, according to a person with knowledge of the talks, as per the report. While he may have lacked the experience of marshalling multibillion-dollar takeovers, Birchall helped corral the banks,-with the assistance of his former employer, Morgan Stanley, to nail down the financing, said the person, describing him as a no-nonsense and easy-to-deal-with person.
Amidst the Twitter deal¡¯s anticipation, Birchall also played a role as ambassador, embracing Musk's view that Twitter should be an unfettered platform for free speech.
Then there are the intricacies of managing Musk¡¯s complicated life. He frequently shuttles around on a private jet and makes big, consequential decisions--like selling all his homes, or buying a social-media company, rather abruptly, as per the report. This is all happening while his already sizable family is growing along with his profile. Someone has to be there to deal with the nitty gritty--arranging the jet, selling the houses, contacting the bankers, and hiring the nannies and security guards. And for Elon Musk, it's Birchall.
Jared Birchall got his start in finance at Goldman Sachs., joining after he graduated from Brigham Young in 1999. It was a short stint: in 2000, he moved to work in private wealth at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles, where he was fired for "sending correspondence to a client without management approval," according to a regulatory report.
In 2010, Birchall joined Morgan Stanley, where one person familiar with his time there described him as someone who wasn't a superstar, but good at managing the fortunes of the rich.
Then Musk came calling.?Birchall had left Morgan Stanley in 2016 to help the Tesla leader set up Excession, named after the Iain Banks science-fiction novel. The book centres on a powerful alien object, the Excession, that appears and spurs societies to fight over its control.
It's not a cakewalk. A great deal of managing a family office is about the cultural fit. At Excession, it's a surprising match between Birchall, a low-key Mormon family man, and Musk, a thrice-divorced online provocateur who openly gets high and who's recently had two children with musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes. The boy and girl are called X and Y, respectively.
Like everything around Musk, the family office isn't typical. After all, most of Musk's investments, barring his recent purchase of Twitter, are in his own companies: Tesla, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Boring Co. and Neuralink. Besides all that, he's said he has invested in a handful of cryptocurrencies, and, before he sold his mansions, a real estate portfolio in California.
The vast majority of Musk's wealth, which currently stands at $180 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is reportedly made up of his stake in Tesla.
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Birchall himself may have built his own considerable wealth, even if it's nowhere near the stratospheric levels of his boss. One Morgan Stanley report shows that the typical head of a large family office earns about $1 million to $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.
Birchall also moved his family to Texas, buying a $2.25 million home in Austin in 2020. The listing for the five-bedroom house shows an ornate living space with columns in the foyer and elaborate ironwork, with a pool and tennis court outside.
Excession relocated to Texas, too, along with the Musk Foundation, Musk's school Ad Astra, and several of his other LLCs, all of which list Birchall as director, manager, chief financial officer, or some other title, including Neuralink, Musk's brain-implant company, which lists Birchall as CEO.
Birchall doesn't necessarily have real executive power at these entities, as per the report. For example, his name was only added to Neuralink paperwork as a legal convenience, a person familiar with the matter said. Birchall rarely visited the Neuralink office and wasn't involved in day-to-day work, said the person, who asked not to be named speaking about the inner workings of the company.
Birchall has taken on roles more typical for a head of a family office, such as facilitating relationships with the big banks Musk routinely turns to for mega loans. Those have been key to how Musk has grown his fortune, borrowing to fund new ventures instead of being forced to sell Tesla stock. That's also significantly reduced his tax obligations.
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