Marchionne Replaced as CEO at FCA

Sergio Marchionne has stepped down as CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV after serious complications while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Earlier today FCA’s board named Mike Manley (pictured), who heads the company’s Jeep and Ram brands, as permanent CEO, effective immediately.

The company says “unexpected complications” arose over the past week as Marchionne, 66, was recovering from the surgery, and those complications “worsened significantly” earlier today. As a result, the company says, he “will be unable to return to work.”

Separately, Ferrari NV, which was spun off from FCA in 2016, says Marchionne has been replaced as the supercar company’s chairman and CEO by FCA Chairman John Elkann and board member Louis Camilleri, respectively.

Marchionne also has been replaced as chairman of CNH Industrial NV, which spun off from Fiat in 2011, by CNH board member Suzanne Heywood.

The hard-charging, blunt-talking Marchionne had planned to retire next April but continue as chairman and CEO of Ferrari. He hasn’t been seen in public since late June. Marchionne is credited with pulling Chrysler out of bankruptcy, successfully integrating it with Fiat, slashing the resulting company’s debt load and generating record profits for FCA.

Britain-born Manley joined DaimlerChrysler AG in 2000. He has been president and CEO of the Jeep brand since 2009, when Fiat began to amass a controlling stake in Chrysler. Previously he headed international sales and product planning operations for Chrysler.