Mr Marchionne steps down as Ferrari ceo

With the abrupt news and management shakeup this weekend I suspected something might be dire.

May he rest in Peace.

 

Many of your questions should be answered at the September stakeholders meeting when the five year plan is supposed to be revealed. I say “supposed to be” because it was originally scheduled to be revealed in the first quarter. Now, with recent events, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is once again delayed.

 

It's pretty clear the whole FCA group has a strategic plan authored by Sergio. I'd be surprised if what they did deviated much from it. The Ferrari SUV will happen, all the other manufacturers are producing one.

 

do you think the cullinan is a good look? I personally think its gonna be a flop, how many $400k buyers want that over a ghost? I'll take a ghost all day and I'm sure that has plenty of trunk space to go grocery shopping in, lets not pretend like the cullinan is gonna be used to run errands at Home Depot in.

 

I think the Cullinan is hideous. If I were in the market for an ultra luxury SUV, I would go with the Bentley. As for a future Ferrari SUV, I'm assuming that will fall into a different category - Ultra Sport Utility SUV (yes, I know that's redundant). Having said that, I still don't like the idea.

 

May he Rest in Peace!

And yes, thank you what you did for Ferrari.
But no thank you what you did to Lancia and Maserati (the latter must "re-animate" Alfa Romeo with dozens of their own engineers instead for producing and establishing a new Maserati product line which is over-due and outdated for -at least- 5 years!). Sorry to say all this - but that`s the truth!

 

No I don't like the Cullinan. But last I checked the Ferrari SUV was coming out next year meaning all the development work is now done. Barring a major development I woud expect the model to be released as planned.

 

If it's coming out next year, I can promise you the tooling is all underway and much likely completed.

 

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/sergio-marchionne-loss-legend/

 

University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, today declared in a statement that Mr Marchionne had been their (regular) patient for more than a year already but unfortunately - despite all the first class top medicine available - were unable to save his life.

Which sounds to me that he knew what was coming and apparently did not inform anybody.

Marcel Massini

 

https://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/das-universitaetsspital-zuerich-aeussert-sich-zum-todesfall-von-sergio-marchionne-ld.1406827

Marcel Massini

 

I wasn't a fan of Sergio's but may he rest in peace.

-F

 

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If he had a life-threatening illness for a year and never disclosed that to his Board can there be repercussions since a publicly traded company?
Just curious....

 

I am asking myself exactly the same question.

Basically, as tragic and brutal as it may be, the day he learned about his serious illness he "should" have stepped down immediately, for the good of the company and their shareholders as well.
One of his homes in Switzerland was in Schindellegi (a Swiss tax heaven) which is approx 30 mins away from the University Clinic in Zurich (USZ) and it seems from the clinic's statement today he was a regular patient there since about one year.
How could a man of this caliber hide his regular visits to the clinic?
He also had a home in Blonay (Canton Vaud), Lake Geneva Region.

Marcel Massini

 

None of us know what he knew, when he knew, and what he disclosed (to whom). Correct?

 

There’s a very good chance we don’t know the full story. The board obviously had a succession plan in place, otherwise they wouldnt have quickly appointed Louis Camilleri the new CEO. My guess is that Elkann and the board knew he wasn’t well but everyone (including Marchionne himself) wasn’t expecting things would end so quickly. We’re all speculating.

 

First of all, there's a key point to clarify here: Marchionne did NOT "step down" or "retire." He was administratively removed from power due to medical incapacity. It doesn't sound like he went into the hospital imminently dying, but rather it sounds like he and his medical team thought he was treatable and would walk out.

Piecing together the tidbits that have come out (at least the ones being reported by multiple sources), it sounds like he had a sarcoma - a cancerous soft tissue tumor - in his shoulder blade area, which had made it uncomfortable to move and breathe. Based on different reports, he may have had prostate cancer that spread to that area, OR - as a long-term chain smoker - he may have had something originating nearby in the lung. During surgery, he seems to have suffered a heart attack or stroke while under anesthesia, and that left him in a coma (unclear whether it was medically induced or naturally occurring). As a result, he was unable to breathe on his own without a ventilator. About three weeks later, either this past weekend or at the time of death, he suffered a second cardiac arrest. Sometime either during those intervening three weeks, perhaps this past weekend, doctors concluded he had little or no brain function, and would not be able to come off life support. Upon visiting the family and medical team and receiving this news, Elkann activated a succession plan with a heavy heart.

I'm sure many of us have known people diagnosed with prostate cancer who lived another 20 years, or people who had a piece of lung removed from cancer and lived long after. Lance Armstrong had testicular cancer that metastasized to his brain and lungs, before he came back to win the TdF. It sounds like the executive infrastructure acted responsibly and did what it should have. Marchionne's only responsibility to shareholders was to run the company well, with their best financial interests in mind. So long as he - and the board - expected that he could continue to do this, there's no compelling legal argument that he should have had to disclose health problems (particularly BECAUSE this could lead to share price-damaging speculation). If he thought he would come through his shoulder surgery and ultimately return to work until his planned retirement, there would be no need to activate a succession plan or inform shareholders, until or unless something went wrong. And when something did go wrong, and it became clear that Sergio wasn't coming back, FCA and Ferrari did exactly what they were supposed to do.

The successors now inherit marques worth 10x their value at the beginning of Marchionne's tenure, some of which wouldn't exist today but for his strategy. Plenty of Tifosi, myself included, felt he lacked Luca and Enzo's passion/vision, but he was a lengedary business executive, and it's a crying shame to have to go in such an awful way.

 

I would agree with this assessment. The only thing I would add is that Elkann (and Camilleri) we’re likely aware of Marchionne’s situation, which would have been expected. Boards don’t normally appoint a CEO imeediatly unless they already knew who Marchionne’s successor was, even if that plan wasn’t to take place until the future. By the way, I think Camilleri is a superb choice.

 

Last Saturday was announced that Louis Camilleri will be the company new CEO. After the announcement Ferrari share price went down on pace for it’s worst day since September 2017 when it lost 7 per cent. That means the markets think future profit perspectives will decline with Camilleri ? No one has the answer yet.

Who is Camilleri ? in short they say is the man who helped the tobacco company Phillip Morris shift from traditional to e-cigarrettes. There are already grumblings among Ferrari investors, dealers and collectors about whether a former tobacco chief truly has the car expertise and specialized knowledge about the most storied and vaunted name in autos and racing to maintain its exclusivity.Cynics even say that he is the right man to make the future Ferrari’s shift to e-cars. Friends and colleagues deny critics of Camilleri, they say he is passionate about the Ferrari brand and its racing DNA. Camilleri once ran Marlboro, which is a sponsor of Ferrari’s Formula One team. He has been attending races and meeting with Ferrari team members for years. Friends also say Camilleri has an impressive collection of Ferraris himself. “He is a car guy,” said one friend and colleague. “He didn’t run a car company — but he is a car guy. And he values the Ferrari brand and believes in it.”

With this change John Elkman, Agnelli’s grand-son which was Marchionne’s former boss, is the only one that can provide an element of continuity and stability at the top of the Fiat/Chrysler group as well as at Ferrari, giving guidance to Camilleri who is new not only to Ferrari but to the auto industry. For the near future probably nothing will change and all Marchionne's approved plans to produce future hybrid models as well as an SUV/FUV will be implemented.

Despite the unexpected and sad departure of Marchionne let’s give the benefit of the doubt to Louis Camilleri hopping that e-cigarrettes are just part of his past and e-Ferraris will never be part of his future.

 

To be more specific, Camilleri was CEO of Kraft Foods, then appointed CEO of Phillip Morris, both major global corporations. He didn’t just launch e-cigarettes. He was the head of the entire company. The board then appointed him Chairman. He has served on the Ferrari board. Yes, he could end up being a bad CEO. Only time will tell, but the man is a serious global operator. Im inclined to think he’ll do an excellent job.

 

Don't major corporations already have backup plans in case their chairman/ceo can no longer function unexpectedly? Like something as commonplace as a car accident?

 

There is a good article in today's WSJ regarding this very topic. Yes corporations are supposed to have progression/succession plans. And the boards are supposed to reveal if their officers are not healthy as it can affect stock price. FCA/Ferrari claim they did not know and were unaware of Mr. Marchionne's illness, even though the hospital is claiming he was sick for a year.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fiat-chryslers-sergio-marchionne-was-seriously-ill-for-a-year-before-dying-1532620292?mod=hp_lista_pos4

 

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180727/COPY01/307279969/fiat-chrysler-says-it-didnt-know-about-ceos-illness-as-queries-surface?ite=85856&ito=1397&itq=b8bfae35-6677-450d-87fd-39c5dd4a33bf&itx%5Bidio%5D=&itx[idio]=10928737

Marcel Massini

 

Remarkable revelation. I wouldn’t expect a CEO to make a major public announcement unless it was to define an exit plan, but he definitely should have disclosed his illness to the board. Luckily they seem to have had a succession plan in place.