Nikola’s CFO steps down in startups’ latest high-level exit

Nikola Corp.’s chief financial officer is stepping down next month in a shake up of the zero-emission vehicle startup’s top ranks. 

Kim Brady, who has been a source of stability amid managerial turmoil, will leave as finance chief at the Phoenix-based company on April 7 before departing later that month, the company said in a statement Monday. He has served as CFO since Nov. 2017.

The maker of battery-electric semi trucks reported wide misses on revenue and deliveries in the last quarter of 2022, and also failed to deliver as many vehicles as promised despite a previous guidance cut.

Nikola tapped Anastasiya “Stasy” Pasterick, its current vice president and controller, as Brady’s successor. Pasterick started her career at KPMG LLP and played a key role in Nikola’s 2020 reverse merger with a publicly traded blank-check company, the company said.

The exit marks the latest high-level departure of an executive who overlapped with Trevor Milton, the company’s former founder and chairman, who resigned in Sept. 2020. Milton was later found guilty of defrauding investors. 

Earlier this year Mark Russell stepped down as Nikola’s chief executive officer, a post he had held since June 2020 — the same month the company merged with a special purpose acquisition company. Russell, who joined Nikola as president in Feb. 2019, was replaced by Michael Lohscheller.

Nikola’s shares, which peaked at an intraday high of $93.99 shortly after its mid-2020 IPO, closed Monday at $1.51. The stock fell 1.3% in postmarket trading as of 6pm in New York.