Chairman

We're saddened to report the death of John G. Smale. Considered an outsider to the automotive industry upon his appointment, Smale served as chairman of General Motors from November 1992 to the end of 1995. A member of GM's board since 1982, Smale was named chairman at a difficult turning point ...

Sergio Marchionne appears to be very well regarded within the auto industry and his work making Fiat a viable automaker has been pretty remarkable overall. Now Marchionne is charged with saving the beleaguered and product-starved Chrysler while also keeping momentum back home in Italy. That's a ...

Emerging reports from the German press suggest that Bernd Pischetsrieder is being considered as a top candidate to lead automotive supplier Continental. The veteran automotive industrialist was chairman of BMW for most of the 1990s and then of the Volkswagen group until three years ago, but ...

A new General Motors needs new leadership. So following the replacement of former CEO Rick Wagoner with Fritz Henderson, the General has announced its new incoming chairman: Edward E. Whitacre, Jr.Whitacre is perhaps best known for his seventeen-year tenure as chairman and chief executive of ...

These are precarious times for European design studios and coachbuilders, with some of the biggest names in the business facing potential closure. Not even Pininfarina is immune, and the storied Italian studio cannot afford to miss a beat. That's why, only days since the tragic death of its CEO ...

Tom Purves, Chairman of BMW North America, is getting a new desk -- one that is adorned with a silver Flying Lady. As of July 1, Purves will take over as the CEO of BMW's Rolls-Royce brand in Goodwood, England. Replacing Tom Purves as the CEO of BMW's North American Unit will be Jim O'Donnell, who ...

Like their competitors, Ferrari uses advanced aerodynamics to keep their cars on the ground. But what if they flipped their technology upside down to create an aircraft? The result could very well be this, the Piaggio P180 Avanti II.Beyond the usual correlation between the automotive and ...

According to a German magazine referenced by Automotive News, Wolfgang Bernhard is expected to be announced as the Chrysler Group's chairman-in-waiting, pending DaimlerChrysler's sale of the automaker to Cerberus Capital Management. Currently Bernhard is an acting advisor, a consultant if you will, ...

We knew that BMW chairman Helmut Panke would go "buh-bye" after his contract expires in 2007 due to BMW's policy to boot any leader over the age of 60, but we weren't sure who would take the helm. BMW has announced that the man for the job is Norbert Reithofer, who has been production manager since ...

Along with the announcement of its summer sales incentives today, Chrysler also unveiled its "Ask Dr. Z" national ad campaign that features the company's Chairman, Dieter Zetsche, as the spokesperson. The ads mark the first time DaimlerChrysler will be communicating what it believes are the ...