Rivian elects former Waymo CEO John Krafcik to board

John Krafcik, who led autonomous vehicles company Waymo for five years, has joined Rivian’s board of directors, according to a regulatory filing.

EV maker Rivian increased the size of its board and elected Krafcik to serve as a director, the filing said. His term will expire in 2024, when Rivian holds its annual shareholder meeting. The board also appointed Krafcik to its audit committee, replacing the spot held by Pamela Thomas-Graham. She is now a member of the board’s planet and policy committee.

“We are thrilled to welcome John to the Rivian board,” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. “John has tremendous leadership experience in the automotive industry and an impressive track record of building and leading innovative companies. His expertise in manufacturing engineering and automotive technology will be a valuable addition to our team. I’m confident that John will play a key role in helping us achieve our mission to electrify transportation and make it more sustainable.”

Krafcik was part of Waymo’s transition from a special project at Google to its own business unit. During his tenure, the company rebranded to Waymo and locked in several partnerships with automakers such as Chrysler (now Stellantis) and Jaguar. Waymo also ramped up its testing and development and eventually launched a commercial robotaxi service in Phoenix during his time there.

Before Krafcik became CEO of Waymo he was well known in the automotive industry, spending a decade at Hyundai North America in top executives positions. He worked in product development at Ford earlier in his career. Before taking the Waymo CEO gig, Krafcik had been president of online used car marketplace TrueCar.

Krafcik resigned as CEO of Waymo in April 2021 and remained in an advisory role for another year. That position is now held by two people: Tekedra Mawakana, who was COO, and Dmitri Dolgov, who was part of the original Google self-driving project and was most recently CTO.