I know trying to reason with Ferrari/Montezemolo bashers is like offering water to rabid dogs, so . . . drink up!
SOURCE: Automotive News Europe -- April 20, 2010 12:05 CET
UPDATED: April 20 16:05 CET
TURIN – Luca Cordero di Montezemolo will quit as Fiat S.p.A. chairman, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Montezemolo will stay on Fiat Group's board and will remain chairman of the company's Ferrari sports car subsidiary.
Montezemolo is stepping down on the eve of the presentation of Fiat Group's 2010-2014 business plan because he has "completed the assignment given to him" when he was appointed chairman in May 2004, the statement says.
Montezemolo will go into politics, three sources close to the company said. They added that Montezemolo is quitting the post because he does not agree with CEO Sergio Marchionne's future strategy for the Italian industrial conglomerate's auto business.
Fiat vice chairman John Elkann will replace Montezemolo, sources said.
Elkann, 34, is chairman of the Agnelli family holding company Exor S.p.A, which controls 30 percent of Fiat, Italy's largest manufacturer. He is the grandson of former Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli and was designated by his grandfather, who died in 2003, to succeed him as the leader of the family's business interests.
Still on the Board. Still Chairman of Ferrari. Plans to go into politics.
Was he "fired?" Not officially, but such mutual partings are not uncommon at the upper levels of businesses. BTW, how many of you would mind being "fired" into the chairmanship of Ferrari?
Enzo Ferrari was a great man. But he was not a good man. -- Phil Hill