Nikola Corporation
Leadership History
4 leaders · 2014 to present
Stephen J. Girsky is the CEO of Nikola. The first chief executive was Trevor Milton, from 2014.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen J. Girsky | President & Chief Executive Officer | 2023 | 2025 | 2 |
| Michael Lohscheller | Chief Executive Officer | 2023 | 2023 | < 1 |
| Mark Russell | Chief Executive Officer | 2020 | 2022 | 2 |
| Trevor Milton | Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman | 2014 | 2020 | 6 |
Nikola Corporation was one of the best-known casualties of the 2020 EV SPAC boom. It promised to decarbonize long-haul trucking with hydrogen semis and fueling stations, and it did put Tre battery-electric and fuel cell trucks into customer fleets from 2022 onward. But it lost far more money than it earned and was weighed down by its founder's fraud. It entered bankruptcy in February 2025 and is being liquidated. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The zero-emissions commercial truck startup was founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Trevor Milton, experiencing a meteoric 2020 SPAC valuation boom before surviving founder fraud, criminal conviction, and restructuring into a hydrogen fuel-cell truck manufacturer.
President & Chief Executive Officer
2023 – 2025
2 years
Former GM vice chairman and VectoIQ chairman. He became CEO in August 2023, put hydrogen trucks first, oversaw the BEV recall fix, and led Nikola into its February 2025 Chapter 11 filing and asset sales.
Chief Executive Officer
2023 – 2023
0 years
Lohscheller executed massive, brutal cost-cutting, abandoning the highly expensive electric pickup truck (Badger) and European joint ventures to desperately save cash.
Serving as CEO from 2022 to 2023, the former Opel executive attempted to professionalize the completely chaotic company following Milton's arrest, specifically focusing on launching the hydrogen fuel cell truck.
Chief Executive Officer
2020 – 2022
2 years
Russell managed the absolutely catastrophic fallout from the Hindenburg Research report, successfully preventing General Motors from completely backing out of a crucial manufacturing partnership (though GM drastically reduced its terms).
He took over as CEO immediately after Trevor Milton resigned in disgrace in 2020, attempting to salvage the company's destroyed reputation with Wall Street.
Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman
2014 – 2020
6 years
Milton authorized the highly deceptive, fraudulent marketing video 'Nikola One in Motion,' which depicted a non-functional truck prototype rolling down a hill to trick investors into believing it had a working hydrogen powertrain.
As the disgraced Founder, he nearly destroyed the company through massive, systemic fraud before being federally indicted and imprisoned.
Nikola's failure came from several problems at once: costs per truck that were several times its revenue per truck; a 2023 recall of its battery-electric trucks after battery fires; the scarcity and high price of hydrogen fuel in North America; heavy shareholder dilution; legal liabilities tied to its founder's misstatements, including a $125 million SEC penalty; and competition from well-funded truck makers such as Daimler Truck, Volvo, PACCAR and Tesla.
Key CEOs in Nikola's history include founder Trevor Milton (Executive Chairman 2014-2020), Mark Russell (CEO 2020-2023; built Coolidge plant and oversaw SPAC public transition), Michael Lohscheller (CEO 2023; former Opel CEO who launched commercial Tre BEV/FCEV), and Stephen Girsky (CEO 2023-present; former GM Vice Chairman leading operational turnaround).
In September 2020, short-seller Hindenburg Research published an investigative report detailing extensive fraudulent and exaggerated claims made by Trevor Milton regarding Nikola's proprietary technology; Milton resigned immediately, was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2021, and was convicted in federal court of wire and securities fraud in October 2022 (sentenced to 4 years in prison).
Mark Russell took over operational leadership, dismantled non-core side projects (the Badger electric pickup truck, powersports, electric watercraft), settled regulatory claims with the SEC for $125 million, and focused corporate engineering on building the Coolidge manufacturing plant and launching the Nikola Tre.
Michael Lohscheller, an experienced automotive executive who previously served as CEO of Opel and VinFast, spearheaded the commercial launch of the Nikola Tre BEV, established the HYLA hydrogen brand, and initiated initial production of the Tre FCEV before stepping down due to family health matters.
Stephen Girsky is a veteran automotive executive, former Vice Chairman of General Motors, and former managing director at Morgan Stanley. As Chairman of VectoIQ, he brought Nikola public in 2020; the board appointed Girsky as CEO in August 2023 to bring deep Detroit operational discipline and capital allocation rigor.
Girsky became CEO in August 2023. He focused Nikola on hydrogen fuel cell trucks, oversaw the battery-electric recall repairs, cut costs and searched for capital or a buyer. When funding ran out, he led the company into Chapter 11 in February 2025.
Since its liquidation plan took effect on December 12, 2025, Nikola has had no operating management. Its remaining assets and claims are handled under the court-confirmed plan for the benefit of creditors.
Stephen Girsky is a prominent automotive executive and former Vice Chairman of General Motors who originally sponsored the 2020 SPAC that took Nikola public. Following the resignations of Trevor Milton, Mark Russell, and Michael Lohscheller, Girsky assumed the CEO role in 2023 to restructure company debt, oversee fuel-cell production in Arizona, and stabilize supply chains.
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