In most companies, the CEO reports to the chairman of the board and the chairman of the board reports to the shareholders ( particularly the major shareholders ).
The biggest TSLA shareholder is elon musk and many of the large shareholders are friends/backers of elon musk.
So this is a purely superficial move for optics.
She gets a nice sinecure with a fat paycheck. Musk gets the feds off his back.
The CEO reports to the board. The Chairman reports to the board. The board reports to the shareholders but only indirectly via shareholder meetings where votes will decide on renumeration, board composition etc.
The chairman is typically elected by the board, but there's a lot of variety. Some smaller ones just make a schedule early to basically rotate through members for two years periods. I think there's a lot of variety in this part depending on the company, board, shareholders, etc.
The biggest TSLA shareholder is elon musk and many of the large shareholders are friends/backers of elon musk.
So this is a purely superficial move for optics.
She gets a nice sinecure with a fat paycheck. Musk gets the feds off his back.