Breaking: Robert L. Nardelli to take over for LaSorda; Ridenour to depart
From WSJ: “Robert L. Nardelli, former chief executive of Home Depot Inc., is taking command of Chrysler, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mr. Nardelli will assume the top spot from Tom LaSorda, who had run the auto maker before the arrival of its new majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP. Mr. LaSorda will become vice chairman and president, said one former auto-industry official.
Eric Ridenour, Chrysler’s current chief operating officer, likely will leave the company, the industry official said. But it’s unclear who will become Chrysler’s chairman following the management shakeup.
Nardelli to Become CEO of Chrysler - wsj.com
Automotive News is running the stories as official news. When they say the “New” Chrysler, they really mean it.
Autonews.com - autonews.com
More details:
Former Chrysler executive Wolfgang Bernhard, a senior adviser to Cerberus, had been widely expected to be named chairman. He was offered a position with the company but elected not to accept it, the person said.
Tom LaSorda, who led Chrysler as a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, was named vice chairman and president of Chrysler, reporting to Nardelli, the person said.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Great! The customer will get shafted again. If he repeats the HD strategy we will see alot of very diverse staff that doesn’t know s___ from shinola
but can really shuck and j___.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
This is possibly the worst decision Chrysler has made since the DCX merger.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
What the F… are they thinking?This guy has no auto insight.I guess they were right when they said cerberus doesnt know how to run an auto company.Looks to me like its going to be a quick shake em up, and then sell it all offfffffff…………Its a DAMN SHAME
August 6th, 2007 at 7:04 am
The New Chrysler Logo
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa47/Durameter/?action=view¤t=TheNewChrysler.jpg
August 6th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Your are all bashing this guy without giving him a try. Maybe a fresh face is what Chrysler needs a new face, fresh ideas, who knows. time will tell.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:20 am
If Nardello’s contract is what has been advertised in the media, he will be under tremendous pressure to generate profits, and he will want to see his stock value increase. The way he has done this in the past (Home Depot/GE) is by reducing the quality of the product to reduce costs as well has hiring unqualified lower cost people. This may be the end for Chrysler. If this method is employed, more customers will be driven to the higher quality imported products than ever before. Even now their products can’t compete with the imports in quality or reliability.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:31 am
“This may be the end for Chrysler.”
Could be. At least Mulally at Ford had some experience with big manufacturing operations.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Not only did Mulally have manufacturing experience, he was very instrumental in convincing Ford the value of quality when Ford first introduced the original Taurus, and saved Ford from bankruptcy. I don’t see Mr. Nardello embracing a higher quality product. His mode of operation has always been to cut costs in order to maximize profits, and I don’t think that will work against the competition that exists. Daimler, in their nine years of ownership could not bring the quality of the product up to a competitive level with the imports, and Nardello has no incentive to bring it there, so how can Chrysler survive?
August 6th, 2007 at 11:43 am
This is not confidence-inspiring news.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Give him a chance! Wolfgang couldn’t run VW much less Chrysler. He is a great product guy—-period. Wolfie can still help. LaSorda was not qualified to run the company (take note Dieter!) because he is limited to manufacturing. LaSorda is a great #2. Now they need to get rid of Steven Landry and get Gary Dilts back in that job. Get ready to hit the Canadian prarie again Landry cause you are history. Next time you get a chance why don’t you treat your dealers better! You had the nerve to call some of your struggling dealers “Lousy” at the Mexico meeting—well guess what you ran a LOUSY company and you did a LOUSY job! Say hello to Joe Eberhardt I heard he can get you a deal on a Mercedes.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Hey who said I would give Landry a deal?
We only kept him around because he was a complacent Canadian and we wanted less American interference.