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Streiff has been replaced by Phillipe Varin, the ex-CEO of Corus Steel who was also in the running for the position when Peugeot chose Streiff.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]

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