Whistleblowing U.S. sales chief leaving Fiat Chrysler
DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler’s head of U.S. sales is leaving the company after a bumpy career that saw him file a whistleblower lawsuit over a scheme to pay dealers to report fake sales numbers.
The company said in a statement that Reid Bigland will leave Fiat Chrysler on April 3 after 22 years with the company. He’ll pursue other interests.
Bigland, 54, also headed the Ram brand and Fiat Chrysler Canada. During his tenure, the company saw big U.S. sales growth, mainly with the Jeep and Ram brands. But his career was marred by the sales scandal, which forced Fiat Chrysler to restate numbers and pay $40 million to settle a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Terms of Bigland’s departure weren’t announced.
“All matters pertaining to legal actions between Reid and the company have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved,” Shawn Morgan, a Fiat Chrysler spokeswoman, said in an email.
“Reid is leaving FCA on his own accord and is looking forward to the next chapter in his life,” Deborah Gordon, Bigland’s lawyer, said in an email.
Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Mike Manley thanked Bigland for his service in a company statement. “We all wish him every success in his future endeavors,” Manley said. Bigland said in the same statement that it’s been a privilege to work at Fiat Chrysler and with the company’s dealers.
In June, Bigland alleged Fiat Chrysler withheld 90% of his pay package to punish
him for testifying before the SEC over whether the company inflated sales and deceived stockholders. Bigland told the agency about company practices that he testified had dated back 30 years. He has also said the SEC pressured him to admit wrongdoing, but he refused.
The company withheld Bigland’s 2018 long-term incentive stock payout, special dividends and an annual bonus in retaliation for his testimony and because he sold some stock, according to the lawsuit. Documents say the dividends alone are worth about $1.8 million.
In September, Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay $40 million to settle an SEC complaint alleging that the company misled investors by overstating its monthly sales numbers over a five-year period. The car maker didn’t admit wrongdoing.
The company inflated sales by paying dealers to report fake numbers from 2012 to 2016, the SEC alleged in a complaint.
Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay the civil penalty and to stop violating anti-fraud, reporting and internal accounting control regulations, the SEC said. The automaker did not admit or deny the agency’s allegations.
Fiat Chrysler said it has reviewed and refined its sales reporting procedures.
The SEC said the automaker boasted about a streak of year-over-year sales increases into 2016, when the streak actually was broken in September of 2013.
When the company disclosed the sales scheme in 2016, it said it had a “reserve” stock of cars that had been shipped to big fleet buyers such as rental car companies but not recorded as sales.
The SEC said employees called this database of actual but unreported sales the “cookie jar.” The company dipped into those sales to stop the streak from ending, or when it would have missed other sales targets.
Bigland was widely viewed as a rising star within Fiat Chrysler after he was appointed to head of U.S. sales in 2011. He became one of the late CEO Sergio Marchionne’s most trusted deputies by overseeing a streak of rising sales in the U.S. that earned him added responsibilities. At various points during his tenure, he was chief of the Ram pickup division and the premium Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands.
Bigland held a call with top retailers Wednesday morning to let them know he was leaving, said David Kelleher, a Philadelphia-area Fiat Chrysler dealer who sits on the automaker’s dealer council.
Kelleher doesn’t expect Bigland to be out of the car business for long. “He’s way too talented an executive with way too many years ahead of him to be finished,” he said. “I fully expect that he’ll emerge” at another company.
The company has named Jeff Kommor to replace Bigland as head of U.S. sales, while David Buckingham will lead Fiat Chrysler Canada. Mike Koval will be interim head of the Ram brand in North America.
Kommor, 59, will have to contend with a softening market, uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus and increasing competition in truck and SUV segments.
The automaker’s U.S. sales slipped 1.4% in 2019, as sagging demand for divisions including Dodge and Chrysler offset Ram’s expansion. Toward the end of the year, the automaker started getting push-back from dealers over pressure it’s been putting on them to take delivery of vehicles they haven’t ordered.
Fiat Chrysler plans to merge within the next year with France’s PSA Group in a deal that would create the world’s fourth-largest car maker. The company is betting it can deliver even bigger profits this year on the backs of the Ram truck and Jeep SUV brands.