Musk was able to successfully acquire Twitter without a mysterious right-hand man, Jared Birchall. On May 7, Bloomberg published a story about Bercal, revealing how he helped Musk take Tesla and Twitter private, manage his wealth and solve problems.
According to Bloomberg, in the acquisition, Bercard actively persuaded several banks to raise funds so that Musk would not have to be forced to sell Tesla shares and be exempt from taxes. In addition, he usually has to deal with Musk's sudden decisions at any time, such as selling all the houses, hiring nannies and security guards, and even investigating the scandals of opponents. For the past six years, Bercal has been helping Musk with similar troubles.
Unlike Musk's high-profile publicity, not many people know about Burchar, who has never posted anything on Twitter and only focused on several companies, including bossEsk and SpaceX, whose former classmates and former colleagues have only heard the man's name.
Raphael Amit, a management professor at Wharton, once said, "Once you appoint a person to run a family office, it means you trust him." "It's also true that Musk's company, Neuralink, family office Excession, and even personal affairs have Burchar to help take care of it," Musk did to give him the most control. ”
But it's not easy to take care of so many errands for Musk. Tayyab Mohamed, co-founder of Agreus Group, a family office recruiting firm, said the boundaries between individuals and professions in this job are often blurred and will not last long without tacit understanding and similar values with employers. "I absolutely believe he and Musk have an amazing rapport."
A
Bloomberg reported that Berchar was 3 years younger than Musk. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1999, he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. The following year, he moved to Merrill Lynch as a wealth manager, where he worked for ten years.
In 2010, Bercal was fired by Merrill Lynch. According to documents from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), he was fired for "sending letters to clients without management's approval" and "behavior caused management to lose confidence."
Less than a month later, Bercal joined Morgan Stanley as senior vice president. One person familiar with him said in an interview with Bloomberg that Berchar was particularly adept at managing the wealth of the rich. It was during that time that Buchar met Musk and helped him with many useful suggestions.
In 2016, Musk made a phone call and threw an olive branch at Bercal. Burchar later helped him set up the Single Family Office Excession, named after a science fiction novel Musk likes, Excession, which he was once seen holding at the Sun Valley Summit in Idaho.
Family offices are common. "There are very famous family offices where there are more than 100 people working for them," Tamuhammad said. There are usually researchers, management teams and investment committees, in addition to a group of people who handle day-to-day tasks such as hiring security guards or nannies and arranging travel.
Cascade Investment, Bill Gates' investment firm, employs dozens of people on different teams to manage venture capital, real estate and stock picking, as did the $500 million short Tesla stock.
Musk's family office is much smaller, though. According to Musk in a trial in federal court in Los Angeles, excession was "basically just two people" in 2019, which is not common for a giant rich like Musk.
As Musk's wealth swells from billions to tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, Burchar's role has become increasingly complex. In addition to Excession and the Musk Foundation, Burchar takes care of many of Musk's personal affairs.
If Musk decides to sell all his houses on a whim, or suddenly decides to buy a social media company, Bercal will need to come forward quickly — arranging planes, selling homes, contacting bankers, hiring nannies and security guards. He also liaised with nonprofits on behalf of Musk's foundation, such as the pledge of $100 million for XPrize to carry out a decarbonization project and $2.5 million for two researchers on COVID-19.
Dan Baruch, one of the two researchers who received the research grant, described Bercal as a "very good" person, though he wasn't sure exactly what he had done for Musk.
B
In addition to handling trivial matters, Bercal has provided important help to Musk in some key moments.
In the summer of 2018, Musk sent a team to Thailand with a newly developed mini submarine to participate in a rescue, the submarine was evaluated by rescue expert Vernon Unsworth as "will not help anything", which made Musk angry, calling Onsworth a "pedo guy" on Twitter, and the other party angrily sued Musk for defamation, claiming $190 million.
That's when Bercal came on the scene, hiring a private investigator under the pseudonym James Brickhouse and offering a $10,000 reward to find evidence that Anseworth was a pedophile. But later, the private investigator was confirmed to be a fraudster with a previous conviction.
Musk claimed he was just saying slang, and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, also issued a statement saying Onsworth: "Just jumping at the chance to chase fame and fortune." Burchar also stepped in for a prist role, denying that the crook had provided Musk with misinformation. With the strong cooperation of Bercard and the lawyer, Musk finally won the case.
According to Bloomberg, Burchar admitted in his testimony that he had previously done other things under the pseudonym Brickhouse, such as planning Musk's trip and buying a domain name — justballs.com. He said he had an "instinct to protect Musk."
Burchar, like Musk, espoused free speech. Charles Johnson was banned on Twitter for interfering in the Black Man's Life Is His Life campaign. Last December, Burchar emailed Johnson saying he strongly opposed censorship and that "it's crazy." ”
In the 2018 Tesla privatization survey, Bercal appeared only once in hundreds of text messages and phone calls. On that occasion, he suggested that Musk work with Morgan Stanley, writing in a text message: "They are by far the best resource we can find, and every time we pressure them to lower their rates, they say yes." Subsequently, with morgan stanley's help, Musk successfully obtained a $61 million mortgage through five properties in California.
Burchar also played an important role in the Twitter acquisition that began in April. Musk announces $7 billion in new funding from Oracle Corp. billionaire Larry Ellison, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and cryptocurrency exchange. According to Binance insiders, Bercal is one of the contacts for financing, mainly responsible for video chat to ensure that the transaction is successful.
A person familiar with the matter said in an interview with Bloomberg that although he lacked experience in organizing multibillion-dollar acquisitions, with the assistance of his former employer Morgan Stanley, Burchar managed to convince several banks that the funds were key to the success of the deal, describing him as a serious but easy-going person.
Recently, according to the "Phoenix Network Finance" report, as musk's acquisition of Twitter gradually became clear, Johnson sent a text message to Burchar, "When can I get my account back?" The latter replied: "Hopefully soon."
C
For most of Bercal's service to Musk, he plotted behind his back like a military master.
Musk has more than 90 million Twitter followers, and as for Bercal, the presence is much lower. Brigham Young's former classmates said they couldn't remember him, and Neither did Merrill Lynch's former colleagues. On the boss Musk's favorite Tweet, he only followed 40 accounts, but didn't post anything. On Facebook, he is relatively active, posting photos of his five children and videos of his participation in Christian churches.
One person who knew Bercall described to Bloomberg that "he was a mild-mannered man," only to be more impressed that "he was the agent of a capricious and often controversial billionaire." One of the four interviewees whom Bloomberg contacted said he was "Nice," but even those who interacted with him didn't impress much because he rarely spoke.
Working for one of the world's richest people pays off handsomely. A Morgan Stanley report shows that the head of a large family office earns between about $1 million and $3 million a year. Depending on the responsibilities, some people may be paid much higher.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is currently worth about $250 billion, mostly by his 16 percent stake in Tesla. Bercal himself may have amassed considerable wealth, albeit far less than his boss. In 2020, Bercal bought a $2.25 million home in Austin, a lavishly decorated five-bedroom house that also comes with a pool and tennis court.
Today, Bercal has been highly bound to Musk's company, and he has moved his family to Texas, where he is with several companies such as Excelssion and the Musk Foundation, serving as a director and CEO at Neuralink, and holding the titles of director, manager, and chief financial officer in other companies.
But one person familiar with the matter said Burchar did not necessarily have real executive powers in these companies, and that his name was likely just for legal convenience. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Burchar rarely went to Neuralink's offices and was not involved in his day-to-day work.