JUNE 1, 2004

The revamp at Fiat

Fiat will name Sergio Marchionne as its fifth chief executive officer in two years, replacing Giuseppe Morchio, who resigned after he was not made chairman of the group. The board of directors instead chose Luca di Montezemolo, the boss of Ferrari. Marchionne is the CEO of Societe Generale de Surveillance in Switzerland, the world's largest verification, testing and certification organization. The company operates a network of over 850 offices and subsidiaries and 330 laboratories in 140 countries. It is a leading force in verification and monitoring services for international trade in agricultural, mineral, petroleum and consumer products, together with certification and other services to governments and international institutions (SGS Global Trade Solutions). Marchionne is seen as a safe pair of hands after his restructuring of the Lonza chemicals group. He has been on the board of Fiat for a year as SGS is part-owned a French group which is controlled by one of the Fiat holding companies.

It is yet to be confirmed that Jean Todt will move up to be head of Ferrari-Maserati and that Ross Brawn will take his place as head of the Gestione Sportiva, Ferrari's competition division but these moves seem to be in the pipeline.