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Sergio Marchionne, the Italian-Canadian CEO who rescued the Italian Fiat from bankruptcy and merged it with American automaker Chrysler, was one of the company's chiefs the most daring of his generation.
The 66-year-old man, who died as a result of complications following a surgical procedure, was an accomplished negotiator, known for his uninterrupted work habits and his keen mind.
A poker player and his entourage recounted sleepless transatlantic flights where his boss smoking the chain still wanted to play – and win – another playing card.
The same passion defined his improbable rescue of Fiat by a merger bold with Chrysler that saved both companies and created the seventh largest car group in the world.
He persuaded General Motors to pay $ 2 billion to escape his alliance with a bankrupt Fiat in 2005 before merging on a distressed Chrysler in 2009 and performing a complete takeover of the group in 2014.
He never lost the next bravery affair – the most complicated will be the best – and from the beginning described himself as a sniper ready to do the unexpected, until the next day. to his rejection of the business suits in favor of dark round neck pullovers and buttoned shirts. He used to say that dress up the time saved in the morning.
"He was extremely tough, extremely demanding," says Luca de Meo, the former boss of the Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands, today general manager of the Volkswagen Seat brand. "But he always asked more of himself than of those who surrounded him.When you do that, you become more than a boss – you become a leader."
For Fiat Chrysler's investors, especially the Italian family Agnelli, which is his largest shareholder, he made a fortune, Marchionne has more than tenfold the market value of Fiat, including derived entities such as Ferrari.
Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family, confirmed Wednesday the death of Marchionne.
John Elkann, heir to the Agnelli family, said: "Unfortunately, what we feared happened. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone. I believe that the best way to honor his memory is to build on the legacy that he has left us, continuing to develop the human values of responsibility and openness of which he was the most ardent champion. "
More recently, the Fiat The boss, whose outspokenness Canadian attracted crowds at car fairs and press conferences eager to hear his bitter spirit or hints from another market, appealed to the merger between car manufacturers and capital overcapacity
.] Two months ago, on the occasion of his last day of Fiat Chrysler investor before his retirement, he put warning against the need of the industry to deal with the threat posed by driverless cars and electrification.
"There is nothing noble to be superior to your next ; True nobility is superior to your old self, "said Marchionne, quoting Ernest Hemingway, the ultimate alpha-male author.
Among the current generation of leaders in the automotive industry, only Renault's Carlos Ghosn has served longer as general manager. , having delayed it several times, in April 2019.
"For many, Sergio has been an enlightened leader and an incomparable point of reference," said Mr. Elkann, president of Fiat Chrysler, after Marchionne did not would not recover
Born in 1952 in Chieti, Abruzzo, then a poor region of southern Italy, a young Sergio Marchionne emigrated to Toronto with his mother and father. aged 14, he joined family members who fled the & # 39; Italy after surviving the Nazi atrocities during the Second World War.
Leaving school, he calls himself an accountant and a lawyer.
He entered the orbit of the Agnellis when he was spotted by Umberto Agnelli, brother of Gianni Agnelli, the recently deceased Fiat patriarch, who wanted to find a manager to save Fiat.
Agnelli had noticed that Marchionne, who had come to work in Europe, had achieved a "huge success" by running the Swiss industrial services group SGS. to the lawyer of the Franzo Grande Stevens dynasty
Marchionne joined the Fiat board of directors in 2003. A year later, he was appointed managing director by Mr Elkann, then heir to the company. Agnelli, then 28 years old. He was Fiat's fifth leader in a chaotic two-year period.
Against all odds, he managed to get back the automaker, who had lost more than 6 billion euros in 2003, to enjoy it two years later by cutting costs and laying off workers.
The Chrysler acquisition appealed to his appetite for complexity and high risk. In 2009, Marchionne secured the support of US President Barack Obama, who granted Fiat a 20% stake in the troubled US automaker rather than letting it go bankrupt. Marchionne gained total control by getting Chrysler to pay its own acquisition of € 4.35 billion via a special dividend in 2014.
With a typical aplomb, Marchionne won the hand, arguing that the value of Chrysler and Fiat depended on him. When the Financial Times suggested that he had gone on vacation after concluding the deal in Vero Beach Florida, he returned a message: "I'm never on vacation". 19659002] His next plan failed to fly. A launch at GM to create the world's largest automaker was postponed in 2015.
Instead, he focused on the creation of global brands. Ferrari at a valuation of 10 billion euros. During his last coup in June, he announced that Fiat Chrysler was debt free
"He is a rock star.But the problem is that when a rock star leaves the scene, the lights come on." "It scares the family," a person who had worked for the Agnelli family for many years told the FT.
In the United States, his brutal and straightforward manner has attracted fans, including Mr. Obama, but has also shaken the peers of the auto industry. . On Wednesday, old rivalries have been forgotten.
Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors, said that he had "created a remarkable legacy in the auto industry," while Dieter Zetsche, general manager of Daimler, said: true giant. And many of us have lost a dear friend: Sergio Marchionne. "
Carlos Tavares, general manager of PSA, describes Marchionne as a" great captain of the industry who will remain an example to us all.
Marchionne's relationship with Italy could be complicated.One of Italy's best-paid executives, he dominated industrial life and national conversation, becoming a target for anti-establishment parties.
He was demonized by Beppe Grillo, founder of the anti-establishment Five Star movement for his plant closures and job cuts.At a political rally in Milan, Grillo led the crowd into a singing: "F ** k you, Marchionne".
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In private, Marchionne was well aware of the ravages that globalization had on those who remained.
At an in camera meeting Italian and Italian business leaders in Venice two years ago, he challenged Mario Monti, former Italian Prime Minister, stunned and defensive, about the deafness of Brussels facing the concerns of ordinary people. "Populism, it's just a word that the Bankers use it because they want to blame it, "recalls one officer who met him three weeks ago. "It's just unfairness."
A music fan, who loved jazz, opera and Bruce Springsteen, he used the Springsteen line "halfway to paradise and just to hell" to describe Fiat to analysts. , ruthlessly desperate staff who did not meet his high expectations.
To fuel his unrelenting pace, flying every week between Turin, Detroit, London and often Asia as well, he drank countless chain-smoked espressos and Muratti cigarettes, until a year ago. when on the doctor's orders he left them both.
At a luncheon meeting in Turin in 2013 at the Fiat Lingotto headquarters, he pondered what he would do when he would not focus on cars 24 hours a day: "I want to study theoretical physics ". L & # 39; attraction? "Because it's one of the most difficult things."
He then asked for a computer. In a few seconds, he arrived and Marchionne called a YouTube video of Tsung Tsung, a four-year-old Chinese piano prodigy, playing Flight of the Bumblebee .
"I was sitting late last night watching him," he said. "Can you imagine what you could do with a brain like that?"
He is survived by two children from his first marriage and his long-time partner.
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