Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley looks like the biggest loser in the new board for … [+]
The music stopped for the merged board selection of orbiting car making groups Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s Groupe PSA and FCA’s current CEO Mike Manley was left standing awkwardly to one side.
The 11-member board contained six members appointed from Paris and just five from FCA, even though the Stellantis group is technically a 50:50 split.
While nine of the board members are subject to shareholder approval, two of them – Chairman John Elkann from FCA and CEO Carlos Tavares from PSA – are non-negotiable.
The merged Stellantis has said it will have a continuing executive role for Manley, but that has yet to be either defined or accepted.
Manley, who replaced FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne following his shock death in 2018, was previously head of the Jeep and Ram product lines, as well as the Chief Operating Officer for the Asia Pacific region.
The merged entity will control brands like Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.
A familiar name has also popped up in the board, with Robert Peugeot signing on as Vice-Chairman of Stellantis.
There have been Peugeot family members in the upper management of the automaker since Armand Peugeot built its first car in 1889, though the company itself dates back to Napoleonic France.
Peugeot has been a member of the Groupe PSA Supervisory Board and head’s the Peugeot family’s holdings in much the same role Elkann plays for the Italy’s Agnelli family and its Exor holding company.
Chairman and CEO of the Agnelli family holding company, John Elkann, has positioned FCA beautifully … [+]
Elkann’s role as Chairman will be supported by the appointment of his cousin to the board. Andrea Agnelli is the President of Italy’s dominant Juventus soccer club as well as being a senior figure in Exor.
The deal, which creates the fourth largest automaker on earth behind Toyota, the Volkswagen Group and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, was committed to in December and is expected to be locked down early next year.
PSA appointed former Axa insurance CEO and Nestle board member Henri de Castries to the Stellantis board as the senior independent director, while the remaining six are independent directors.
Former Nestle Executive Vice President Wan Ling Martello will be one of three women on the … [+]
Three of the directors are women, including Ann Frances Godbehere, who is also a director at Royal Dutch Shell, Fiona Clare Cicconi (the pharmaceutical executive who is charged with representing FCA workers) and BayPine private equity co-founder Wan Ling Martello.
Other directors include Bpifrance investment bank CEO Nicolas Dufourcq, PSA workers’ council head Jacques de Saint-Exupéry and Microsoft
