san francisco Find dirty laundry on enemies. Arrange huge loans. Hire bodyguards. sell houses. Running a multi-billion dollar neurotechnology company – at least on paper. It’s all part of Jared Birchall’s job. As Elon Musk’s right-hand man, he has been watching over the wealth – and moods – of the richest person in the world for six years.
Part of such a job is to stay largely in the background. Birchall doesn’t seem to be bad at that. Former classmates say they don’t remember him. So did former colleagues at Merrill Lynch, where he was fired for misconduct. In the tight-knit community of family offices for the super-rich, you only know your name – if at all.
The 47-year-old is one of the most important people in Musk’s circle, leading the Tesla CEO’s family office called Excession, the foundation he is building and many of Musk’s personal businesses. People who know him describe Birchall as mild-mannered. Someone who takes care when the unpredictable billionaire puts his foot in it again.
This has become increasingly difficult as Musk’s fortune has grown from a few billion dollars to hundreds of billions of dollars. Most recently, Birchall helped with the complex financing package Musk plans to use to buy Twitter. The $44 billion acquisition drew some attention to the man.
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He was among the small circle that interacted with Wall Street banks to secure the loans vital to the deal, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Although he has no experience with takeovers of this scale, Birchall helped banks secure funding, according to the person, who describes him as no-nonsense and easy to deal with.
Elon Musk often makes decisions abruptly
On Thursday, Musk announced a group of investors willing to invest more than $7 billion in equity to acquire Twitter, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a Saudi prince and crypto exchange Binance. One of the contacts who helped close the deal in video chats was Birchall, another person familiar with the proceedings. Birchall also takes on the role of ambassador for Musk, such as conveying Musk’s perspective on free speech and censorship to politicians.
And of course there are the subtleties in Musk’s life that he handles, and that’s complicated. Musk frequently flies around in a private jet and makes big, momentous decisions rather abruptly, like selling all of his houses recently.
His already large family is growing, as is his fame. Someone has to take care of the little things – arranging the jet, selling the houses, contacting the bankers, hiring nannies and security guards. For Musk, that’s Birchall. He did not respond to messages and calls requesting comments for this article.
>> Read also: The richest person in the world buys Twitter – to realize his radical ideas
After university, Birchall first worked at Goldman Sachs, but quickly moved to Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles, where he looked after wealthy private clients. He was fired there for sending correspondence to a client without the approval of his superiors, according to regulators.
In 2010, Birchall moved to Morgan Stanley. An insider described him as someone who, while not a superstar there, was good at managing the fortunes of the rich.
Mormon family man meets eccentric billionaire
And then Musk called. Birchall left Morgan Stanley in 2016 to help the Tesla boss build Excession. When running a family office, a lot of things have to fit together in terms of atmosphere and culture. With Excession, this is far from obvious.
Birchall is a low-key Mormon family man, while Musk is a three-divorced online provocateur who smokes joints in public and recently had two more children with musician Grimes. The boy and the girl are called X and Y.
Like everything at Musk, the family office is atypical. Most of the money is in Musk’s own companies: Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. Apart from that, he says he has invested in a handful of cryptocurrencies. The largest part of the fortune, currently almost $250 billion, is his 16 percent stake in Tesla.
The richest person in the world often makes important decisions abruptly.
(Photo: imago images/ZUMA Press)
Birchall himself shouldn’t be starving either. The typical head of a large family office makes around $1 million to $3 million a year. Depending on the area of responsibility, this can also be significantly more.
However, Excession is run by just two people, Musk said in 2019, which is unusual for such a large fortune. Some well-known family offices employ more than a hundred people, says Tayyab Mohamed, co-founder of family office recruitment firm Agreus Group: people for day-to-day tasks like hiring security guards, nannies and arranging travel, a management team and an investment committee.
Another wealth manager, Catalyst Family Office, may also be linked to Musk. She says she offers investing, tax advice, philanthropy and estate planning, as well as “concierge and lifestyle management.” Ronald Gong, a managing partner of Catalyst, is listed on tax forms for Musk’s foundation in 2013, as well as representing other companies associated with Musk.
Catalyst is based in Silicon Valley but also opened an office in Austin when Musk relocated from California to Texas. Birchall also moved to Texas with his family and in 2020 bought a $2.25 million home in Austin with a pool and tennis court.
Birchall maintains relationships with major banks
Excession also relocated to Texas, as did the Musk Foundation, his Ad Astra school, and several of his other companies, all of which Birchall is a part of in roles of director, manager, or chief financial officer—even at Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company.
Birchall doesn’t necessarily have real authority over these companies. For example, his name was only put in the Neuralink papers for legal reasons, according to a person familiar with the matter. Birchall is rarely at Neuralink and not involved in day-to-day operations, said the person, who asked not to be named.
Instead, he maintains relationships with large banks, such as Morgan Stanley, which Musk regularly uses for mega loans. These have been instrumental in Musk’s fortunes growing. He borrowed to fund new ventures instead of selling Tesla stock. This also saved him taxes.
One word that often comes up when describing Birchall is “nice”. Four people who provided information for this story independently referred to him as such. But even with those who had dealings with him, he does not leave a particularly lasting impression, as he says little.
The jobs that Birchall does for Musk sometimes seem anything but nice. In 2018, for example, Birchall was supposed to be trying to discredit a man who had accused Musk of defamation. Birchall hired a supposed private investigator under a pseudonym; Musk ultimately won the case.
Such assignments are not uncommon for heads of family offices, says Mohamed of the Agreus Group. People who come from the Wall Street world but can also do this sort of thing are rare.
More recently, Birchall has been reaching out to nonprofits on behalf of Musk’s foundation. He has delegated some responsibilities to Igor Kurganov, a professional poker player-turned-philanthropist who now acts as a liaison for Musk Foundation grantees. Mohamed said Birchall and Musk had to fit because he’s worked for the billionaire for so long.
“If the personal chemistry and the culture of the company you work for aren’t right, you don’t last long,” said Mohamed. “I’m absolutely certain that beyond his ability – and I’m pretty sure he’s great at what he does – Jared is a great fit for Elon Musk and the chemistry between the two is great.”
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