Fiat Chrysler sees Mike Manley take CEO role
The nomination of Mike Manley as CEO of Fiat Chrysler marks a turning point for the carmaker, putting a brand with historic Italian roots in the hands of someone with no ties to Italy – a Brit who showed his mettle by growing the quintessentially American Jeep into a global brand.
Manley has been one of the closest collaborators with the company’s longtime leader Sergio Marchionne and had been seen as a possible successor since Marchionne announced in January that he planned to step down next year. Those plans were pushed up Saturday after Marchionne’s health deteriorated following surgery.
The 54-year-old Manley also headed the Ram truck brand, which together with Jeep have been the focus of Fiat Chrysler’s growth strategy in North America, whose market represents twothirds of Fiat Chrysler’s earnings.
“The success of the Jeep brand under Mike Manley and his global background make him the smart choice to be the new head of FCA,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. “His international experience in growing that brand will play a key role as he applies those techniques to all of the Fiat Chrysler divisions.”
Manley had joined the company in 2000. He took over management of the Jeep brand in 2009, just after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection funded by the U.S. government. At the time, the all-SUV Jeep mainly was a U.S. brand, where sales languished at around 232,000 for the year.
By 2017, though, sales had nearly quadrupled to more than 828,000 as Americans snapped up all-wheel-drive SUVs. The brand also grew internationally, especially in China, under Manley, and has a difficult goal of hitting 2 million in sales worldwide this year.
Manley stayed at the company through tumultuous times when other executives were ousted, and his roles were expanded because he performed, said Autotrader.com analyst Michelle Krebs.
“He’s low-key and the opposite of Sergio,” she said. “He just went about his business.”
Krebs attended Fiat Chrysler’s five-year business plan unveiling in Italy earlier this year. “A large part of it was the Mike Manley show,” Krebs said. “My sense is he helped develop the plan.”
Krebs doesn’t see any major changes in the way FCA is run under Manley, but says the company does face challenges as the U.S. auto market cools down a bit after record sales.
The company also will have to deal with possible tariffs imposed on vehicles and parts both by the U.S. and in retaliation from other countries. Fiat Chrysler exports Jeeps and other vehicles from the U.S., and it also imports some of its models from Italy and Mexico, especially the growing Alfa Romeo sport luxury brand, she said. Manley has a master’s degree in business administration from Ashridge Management College. He was born in Edenbridge, Great Britain.
We are all witness to bad or careless driving – or motorists showing a momentary lapse in judgments. Unfortunately, these actions can impact anyone sharing the road, sometimes with very serious consequences. This month, ICBC released its latest data and the number of collisions on roads in this province continue to climb. In 2017, approximately 350,000 crashes occurred – or on average, about 960 crashes per day.
Let me repeat that – 960 crashes per day. The overall number of collisions is a 25 per cent increase compared to figures from 2014 and ICBC estimates – based on these results – one of every 10 drivers could be involved in a crash this year.
Along with data, ICBC also released the results of a survey conducted by Insights West as part of the Corporation’s Drive Smart road safety campaign, confirming bad driving habits are a major concern of British Columbians.
More than 75 per cent of respondents admitted to displaying bad driving habits on the road and ranked bad driving as the number-one frustration for drivers, even when compared to traffic and road construction.
Respondents also cited bad driving behaviour as one of the main reasons why driving in the province is more challenging than it was five years ago, with 60 per cent of those surveyed suggesting today’s drivers are worse than in the past.
Given our penchant for cell phones and the latest electronic gadgets, it’s no surprise that 41 per cent of those surveyed believe distracted driving to be the main contributor to today’s poor driving habits.
The best advice for drivers is to put their phones on Do Not Disturb or airplane mode while driving to devote their full concentration to the task at hand. And while many people associate it specifically with cell phone use, distracted driving can also be the result of a driver momentarily losing focus due to a number of factors, including loud passengers who take away from a driver’s focus or changing a music channel.
There is also a host of other factors that survey respondents suggest contribute to poor driving. Twenty-one per cent cited a lack of respect for driving rules, 16 per cent noted speeding, and 12 per cent suggested aggressive driving to be a significant factor as well.
After driving for several years, it’s not uncommon that one would forget some of the rules of the road. According to ICBC, 40 per cent of drivers admit there are rules that they’ve likely forgotten.
In order to make our roads safer, all drivers should take steps to improve and brush up on their knowledge skills. To that end, there are a number of online tools and ICBC recently launched a Drive Smart Refresher Test as another free online tool ( to test a driver’s knowledge of B.C.’s driving rules. Questions change with each completion of the test, so try and beat your score, and refresh your knowledge even further!
With summer in full swing, many families are taking to the road – so, before you buckle up, remember to add in extra travel time and exercise caution because it’s up to each and every driver to make our roads safer. Together, we can all do our part in helping to reduce crashes on our roads.