Yeah, Steven. I got this news late yesterday from financial sources. He's
taking the fall for lagging sales at Chryco. Another dark day in
Chrysler's history, for sure.
Richard
On Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:26:24 -0700 Stlaurent Mr Steven
<STLAURENTS@mctssa.usmc.mil> writes:
> Today's Buzz Watch (www.car-truck.com) seems more incoherent then
> usual,
> it's probably due to the fact that I'm
> running a
> fever. That's
> right. This column is coming from the
> kleenex-strewn
> bedroom of La Casa Del Buzz. I wouldn't
> recommend
> getting too close to the screen. You might
> catch a
> vicious
> case of the Buzz Crud!
>
> Things went from bad to worse this morning
> when the
> phone snapped me out of a feverish dream.
> On the
> other
> end was a friend in Detroit, after allowing
> me to
> moan and
> groan about my illness for a moment he
> interrupted.
> "You
> think you're sick now . . . wait till you
> hear
> this." He took a
> dramatic pause . . . "Tom Gale is leaving!"
>
> Thinking that my congested head was
> affecting my
> hearing I
> asked him to repeat himself, "TOM GALE IS
> LEAVING"
> he shouted. After my nurse revived me, I
> asked him
> why.
> "Not sure, all I know is that Tom is in
> Paris right
> now (at
> the Board of Management meeting) telling
> them that
> he's
> retiring at the end of the year."
>
> I couldn't believe what I was hearing,
> could the
> former
> Chrysler design chief (now Product
> Development and
> Design
> Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep(r)/Dodge and General
> Manager
> Passenger Car Operations, Chrysler Group
> and one of
> four
> Americans on DC's management board) really
> be
> leaving?
> The call came from a high-ranking DC
> insider so it
> must be
> true.
>
> To make sure, I made a couple more calls.
> Then it
> sank in . .
> . Tom Gale is really leaving. If you had to
> pick
> one person
> who was most responsible for Chrysler's
> renaissance
> in the
> early 90's it would have to be Tom. His
> hand was in
> every
> major product that helped bring the company
> back
> from the
> brink of extinction. Most notably, the
> Viper, the
> Dodge
> Ram, the and the LH cars, from 1985 on,
> there
> hasn't been
> a single Chrysler vehicle that wasn't
> influenced by
> Tom.
>
> He first came to Chrysler in 1967, he held
> various
> positions
> in advance body engineering and car and
> truck
> interior and
> exterior through 1981. In 1982 he became
> Exterior
> design
> director, three years later he became
> Chrysler's
> Vice
> President in charge of design. His
> responsibilities
> continued
> to expand in the following years.
>
> In 1998 when Daimler took over he was
> Executive
> Vice
> President - Product Strategy, Design and
> External
> Affairs
> and General Manager - Jeep Operations.
> After the
> takeover
> he became one of a handful of Americans on
> DC's
> management board.
>
> Shortly after the Daimler takeover there
> was Buzz
> that Tom
> was thinking about leaving. At the time a
> high-ranking DC
> insider told Buzz Watch that GM had offered
> Gale a
> major
> chunk of change to come over and be GM's
> design
> chief.
>
> In the release issued by DC late on
> Wednesday, Gale
> reports
> that he's "been contemplating retirement
> for some
> time.
> When Jim Holden took his position as
> President, I
> agreed to
> stay on and see the future product plan
> through,
> while
> continuing to build the team to succeed me.
> Now
> that both
> of those processes are complete and we're
> into the
> next
> phase of development, it's time for me to
> step back
> and
> spend more time with my family."
>
> The Buzz in Detroit is that spending "more
> time
> with his
> family" wasn't the primary reason for his
> departure.
> Instead, a couple sources mentioned that
> his
> membership on
> DC's management board may have been the
> catalysts.
> The
> Buzz is that he's had several major
> disagreements
> with other
> board members (most notably Juergen
> Schrempp) over
> the
> direction Daimler is charting for Chrysler.
> One
> source
> reports that the Boards recent decision to
> undertake major
> cuts within the Chrysler Group was the
> straw that
> broke the
> camels back .
>
> Of course that's all just Buzz at this
> time. The
> only thing I
> know for sure is that Chrysler will not be
> the same
> without
> him. While it's true that "Tom has mentored
> a wide
> group
> of people -- especially in design -- and
> institutionalized his
> risk-embracing, forward-thinking attitude
> which has
> become
> part of the fabric of this company's
> culture" as
> Chrysler
> Group president Jim Holden said. His
> leadership and
> vision
> have been crucial to Chrysler's success
> over the
> last decade.
>
> While he will continue as an advisor to Jim
> Holden
> for the
> next two years, his departure marks the end
> of an
> era for
> Chrysler.
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Steven St.Laurent
> Test Engineer
> Test Branch, GSD, MCTSSA
> MARCORSYSCOM, USMC
> 760-725-2506 (DSN 365-2506)
> Work:mailto:stlaurents@mctssa.usmc.mil
> Home:mailto:saint1958@home.com
>
>
>
________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:55:02 EDT