Peugeot ousts CEO Christian Streiff

Christian Streiff, CEO of PSA Peuget/Citroen since early 2007, has been pushed out by Peugeot's board, controlled by members of the Peugeot family. Streiff took the position after a short, turbulent stint as CEO of Airbus, and his time at Peugeot wasn't much more relaxing. Upon taking the position he stirred things up, changing how models were developed and manufactured. The company earned profits of €885 million in 2007, and while Streiff was controversial to some, he was safe.
Last summer Streiff suffered a stroke and was off work for a couple of months. He returned to work just as things were caving and everyone was wondering whether Peugeot was going to merge with another automaker. When the final numbers were tallied for 2008, Peugeot had lost €343 million ($433 million) for the year. But the real issue appeared to be that Streiff was never clear about what he was going to do about turning things around. The board finally lost faith and let him go, saying that a change was needed to "reveal the potential" of Peugeot/Citroen.
Streiff has been replaced by Phillipe Varin, the ex-CEO of Corus Steel who was also in the running for the position when Peugeot chose Streiff. Varin will begin meeting his team April 15 and take up his post on June 1. In the meantime, a Peugeot board member will run the operations.
[Source: Reuters]












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Avinash machado 9:16AM (3/30/2009)
So today is CEO ouster day. First Rick and now Streiff. When is it Naedelli's turn?
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Rogue_G 9:22AM (3/30/2009)
It's just about guaranteed, I think.
Mullaly is probably the only one that might survive all this, even though Ford's just as guilty of horrible mismanagement. They just got their act together at the right time, lucky break for him.
Avinash machado 9:16AM (3/30/2009)
I mean Nardelli.
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nighttime__ 9:20AM (3/30/2009)
I wish they would merge with Toyota! That would be a great combination, I personally think.
Toyota's Reliability + Citroen's style. and uhhh Peugeots uhh...
They've already worked together on the super mini's (Aygo/C1/107) and it worked well!
If anything they'd be bought out by FIAT if a merge was to occur, right?
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BoxerFanatic 10:33AM (3/30/2009)
Wow. Just freakin' wow.
In the US, the PRESIDENT ousts an auto CEO...
In FRANCE, the company ousts it's OWN CEO...
Exactly when did white become black, and up become down? I thought France was the more socialist country... But that hasn't been true for about 6 months now, at least.
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LDMAN 2:22PM (3/30/2009)
Streiff's replacement is Varin ex CEO of CORUS. Corus is part of Tata. Tata is in bed Fiat. There were rumours of Fiat Peugeot Tie Up. Could we be looking at Fiat Peugeot Chrysler Tata as future company?
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