Meet Sergio Marchionne, American industry's newest no-nonsense star

Updated

Forget about Sebring, Dodge. or Jeep. By far the most important name for the future of Chrysler is Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat, who intends to take the reins at Chrysler once the company emerges from bankruptcy, probably in 60 days or so.

Marchionne may be a new name for many Americans, but he is well known in the automotive industry for the way he turned around the situation at his own company. Marchionne took over at Fiat on June 1, 2004, stepping in at a time when the the car maker was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. In fact, Massimo Vecchio, an analyst with the Italian investment bank Mediobanca, told Forbes.com that Marchionne took over when the company "was literally firing one manager a day" and no one at Fiat "wanted to take hard decisions."

Advertisement