Private jets, private investigators and personal loans: Elon Musk’s little assistant takes care of everything

Look for dirty laundry on enemies. Arrange huge loans. Hire bodyguards. Selling homes. Running a multibillion dollar neurotech company — on paper at least. It’s all part of Jared Birshall’s job. Part of that job is staying largely in the background. Birshall doesn’t seem to be bad at that. Former classmates say they don’t remember him. So did his former teammates at Merrill Lynch, where he was fired for misconduct. In the close-knit family office community of the wealthy, you only know your name – after all.

The 47-year-old is one of the most important people in Musk’s circle, running the Tesla CEO’s family office called Excession, the foundation he builds, and many of Musk’s personal businesses. People who know him describe Birchall as a moderate. Someone who takes care of him when the unpredictable billionaire sets foot in him again.

This became increasingly difficult as Musk’s fortune grew from a few billion to hundreds. Most recently, Birchall helped with a complex financing package that Musk plans to use to buy Twitter. The $44 billion takeover has drawn some attention to the man.

Musk’s Ambassador

It was among the small circle that interacted with Wall Street banks for the credit that was crucial to the deal, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Although he has no experience with acquisitions of this size, Birchall has helped banks secure the financing, according to the person who described it as meaningless and easy to deal with.

On Thursday, Musk announced a group of investors willing to invest more than $7 billion in stocks to acquire Twitter, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a Saudi prince and exchange company Binance. One of the people who helped close the deal in the video chats was Birshall, another person with knowledge of the events.

Birchall also takes on the role of Musk’s ambassador, such as conveying Musk’s perspective on free speech and censorship to politicians.

And of course there are some nitty-gritty details of Musk’s life that he deals with, and that’s complicated. Musk often flies in a private plane and makes surprisingly big and big decisions, like recently selling all of his homes. His already large family is growing, and so is his fame. Someone has to take care of the little things – arrange the plane, sell houses, contact the bankers, hire nannies and security guards. For Musk, this is Birchall.

Birshall did not respond to messages and calls seeking comment for this story.

From Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley

After college, Birshall first worked at Goldman Sachs, but soon moved to Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles, where he looked after wealthy private clients. According to the organizers, he was fired for sending correspondence to a client without the consent of his superiors.

In 2010, Birshall moved to Morgan Stanley. An insider described him as someone who, while not a star there, was good at managing the fortunes of the wealthy.

Then Musk called.

Birshall left Morgan Stanley in 2016 to help the Tesla boss build the Excession. When running a family office, a lot of things have to go together in terms of atmosphere and culture. With the exception, this is far from clear. Birshall is a low-key Mormon family man, while Musk is an internet agitator of three divorces who smokes joints in public and recently had two more children with Claire Boucher, musician better known as Grimes. The boy and girl are named X and Y.

It is managed by only two people

Like everything at Musk, the family office is extraordinary. Most of the money is in Musk’s private companies: Tesla, SpaceX, TBC The Boring and Neuralink. Apart from that, he says he has invested in a handful of cryptocurrencies. Most of the assets, currently about $250 billion, represent his 16 percent stake in Tesla.

Birchall himself shouldn’t be starving either. The typical head of a large family office earns about $1 to $3 million a year. Depending on the area of ​​responsibility, this can also be much larger.

However, Musk said in 2019 that Excession is only run by two people, which is unusual for such a large fortune. Some well-known family offices employ more than a hundred people, says Tayeb Mohamed, co-founder of the family office staffing firm, Agrios Group: people to do day-to-day tasks like hiring security guards and nannies, arranging travel, a management team and an investment committee.

Several companies in Texas

Another wealth manager, Catalyst Family Office, may also be associated with Musk. It says it offers investment advice, tax, philanthropy and estate planning, as well as “facility and lifestyle management services.”

Ronald Jung, managing partner of Catalyst, is included on Musk’s tax forms in 2013, as well as representing other Musk-related companies.

Catalyst is based in Silicon Valley, but it also opened an office in Austin when Musk moved from California to Texas. Birshall also moved to Texas with his family and in 2020 bought a $2.25 million home in Austin with a pool and tennis court.

The franchise has also moved to Texas, as have the Musk Foundation, his school Ad Astra, and many of his other businesses, all of whom Birchall is part of in roles such as director, director, or chief financial officer, even Musk’s brain implant company.

the “nice” guy

Birshall doesn’t necessarily have any real power over those companies — his name was put on Neuralink’s papers for legal reasons, for example, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person, who asked not to be named, said Birshall is rarely at Neuralink and is not involved in day-to-day operations.

Instead, he establishes relationships with large banks, such as Morgan Stanley, that Musk regularly uses to obtain huge loans. These factors were instrumental in increasing Musk’s fortunes. Borrow to fund new projects instead of selling Tesla stock. This also saved him taxes.

One word appears frequently when describing Birchall – “cute”. Four people who provided information for this story independently referred to it as such. But even with those who dealt with him, he does not make a particularly lasting impression, because he does not say anything.

The jobs that Birchall does for Musk sometimes seem unpleasant. In 2018, for example, Birchall was supposed to try to discredit a man who accused Musk of defamation. Birshall appointed a presumed private investigator under a pseudonym; Musk eventually won the case.

The chemistry must be right

Mohamed from Al-Aqras Group says that such appointments are not rare for heads of family offices. People who come from the world of Wall Street but can also do this kind of thing are rare.

Recently, Birshall has been reaching out to nonprofits on behalf of the Musk Foundation. He delegated some responsibilities to Igor Kurganov, the professional poker player turned philanthropist who now acts as a liaison with the Musk Foundation’s beneficiaries.

Muhammad said Birchall and Musk had to fit in because he worked with the billionaire for so long.

“If you don’t have the personal chemistry and company culture you work for, you won’t last long,” Mohammed said. “I’m pretty sure he’s beyond his ability – and I’m sure he’s great at what he does – Jared is an excellent match for Elon Musk and the harmony between the two is just right.”

(Bloomberg)