Speaking in Traverse City, Michigan, Sergio Marchionne announced that he could leave his position at Fiat as early as 2016. The successor could come directly from the new industrial management team wanted by the same CEO and presented last week. There could therefore be only five years left before the end of the Marchionne era at Lingotto, even if the man behind the merger with Chrysler feels compelled to specify that he could “leave sooner or later, it will depend on the circumstances. I don't focus on a date, I focus on the process."
During the same conference promoted by the Center for Automotive Research, Marchionne also spoke about the future of the alliance between the two car manufacturers whose merger he promoted: "I believe - he declared with reference to Fiat-Chrysler - that it will be one of the five or six players that will eventually make up the global auto business”. But this - he specified - "will be up to those who come after me", underlining that he is now 59 years old. "There will be someone else after me and there will be a Chrysler after me," he added.
From America, Marchionne also allowed himself a passage on Europe and the different way in which, in his opinion, industrial relations are conceived in the old continent: "In the economy, Europeans are driven more by ideology: this is why everything it's more difficult. However we will go ahead and solve these problems as well.”
