Former Fiat CEO Marchionne dies

MILAN: Sergio Marchionne, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Fiat Chrysler and architect of the automaker’s dramatic turnaround, has died. He was 66.

His death was confirmed on Wednesday by Exor NV, the holding company of Fiat’s founding Agnelli family, just days after Marchionne was replaced as CEO. His health had declined suddenly following complications from shoulder surgery at a Zurich hospital.

“Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone,” Fiat chairman John Elkann said in a statement. “My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done,” said Elkann, who also is chairman and CEO of Exor.

Selected as CEO of Fiat SPA in June 2004, Marchionne took the Italian manufacturer from the brink of bankruptcy to the New York Stock Exchange, where he rang the bell on October 13, 2014, to mark the debut of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the London company created when Fiat bought the Detroit carmaker.

Marchionne, who described himself as a corporate fixer, was Fiat’s fifth CEO in less than two years when he took over. He replaced Giuseppe Morchio. Marchionne was handed an automaker that lost more than €6 billion ($7 billion) in 2003. By 2005, he had returned the company to a profit by wringing some $2 billion from an alliance with General Motors Co., laying off thousands of workers, introducing new models, and slashing the time it took to get a new car to market to just 18 months, from four years.

In 2009, US President Barack Obama’s administration announced that Fiat would take control of Chrysler LLC.