Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat S.p.A., has been elected President of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association for the year 2006. The appointment was made at the last ACEA Board of Directors meeting, held in Brussels on 2nd December 2005, and will be effective on 1st January 2006, when Mr. Marchionne will take over from the current ACEA President, Bernd Pischetsrieder (Volkswagen AG).

“I am honoured to be appointed President of ACEA”, stated Mr. Marchionne, “and together with my colleagues of the Board of Directors and with the support of the ACEA Secretariat, I look forward to continue the excellent work done by my predecessor, Mr. Pischetsrieder. The next few years will be crucial for the European automotive industry. There are a number of issues facing our industry, but the real overarching challenge is the competitiveness of the European automotive sector. We will work hard to implement the outcome of the CARS 21 initiative, which has the ambitious but necessary objective to build a competitive automotive regulatory system for the 21st century. We need to enhance the competitiveness and the profitability of the European industry in our home markets, if we want to be able to compete globally, to remain leaders in innovation, and to contribute to both sustainable mobility and Europe’s prosperity”.

A dual Italian and Canadian citizen, Mr Marchionne, aged 53, is a barrister and a solicitor by background. He started his professional career in Canada in 1983, as a chartered accountant and tax specialist for Deloitte & Touch. He later held different senior positions in industry from 1985 to 1992. He re-joined Lawson Mardon Group in 1992 as Vice President of Legal and Corporate Development and CFO. The Company was acquired by Swiss based Alusuisse-Lonza (Algroup) in 1994.
 

Between 1994 and 2000, he covered various positions of growing responsibility within Algroup in Zurich, becoming CEO of the Corporation in 1996. He was then at the helm of the Lonza Group Ltd, after its demerger from Algroup, as CEO (2000-01) and then as Chairman (2002). In February 2002 he became CEO of the SGS Group of Geneva. He has been a Member of the Board of FIAT S.p.A. since May 2003 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in June 2004. Since February 2005 he is also CEO of Fiat Auto. He is currently a Board Member of Serono SA and Vice Chairman of SGS Group.

ACEA, established in 1991, represents the thirteen major European car, truck and bus manufacturers. All ACEA member companies are key players in the global automotive market and have integrated automobile operations (research, design, development, production and sales) in the European Union, where they produce around 17 million vehicles per year and provide direct employment to 1.2 million people. ACEA Members are: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, DaimlerChrysler, FIAT, Ford of Europe, General Motors Europe, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Porsche, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Trucks.