Chrysler names remaining board members

updated 11:28 a.m. ET July 6, 2009

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Chrysler Group LLC on Sunday announced the remaining members of its new board of directors, a group that includes a former CEO of Northwest Airlines, investment bankers and top officials of the Italian automaker Fiat Group SpA.

Chrysler, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 11 under a new partnership with Fiat, said it expects to hold the first meeting of the nine-member board on July 29.

Serving as directors will be Douglas Steenland, who served as Northwest’s CEO from 2004 until it was bought out by Delta Air Lines in 2008; George Gosbee, CEO of Tristone Capital Inc.; Scott Stuart, founding partner of Sageview Capital LLC; Ronald Thompson, board chairman of the Trustees for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA); and Stephen Wolf, chairman of R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co.

The automaker had already disclosed that former Borden Chemical and Duracell Chairman C. Robert Kidder will serve as chairman. The United Auto Workers union, which has a large stake in the new Chrysler, previously named former Michigan governor James J. Blanchard to the board.

Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat and the revamped Chrysler, also is on the board, along with Alfredo Altavilla, head of Fiat’s powertrain technologies unit and a senior vice president in Fiat’s autos division.

Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection after just 42 days, cleansed of much of its debt and labor costs. But with sales down 46 percent from the first half of last year — a year in which Chrysler lost $8 billion — the company faces a huge challenge to make money again under its new Italian owner.

Fiat, which has taken over running Chrysler, will provide badly needed small-car and small-displacement engine technology, but that’s more than a year away.

Chrysler’s poor June performance also casts doubt on whether the U.S. government’s $7 billion allocation will be enough to get the automaker through the U.S. sales slump, which is projected to last into next year. The government has said it stress-tested the $7 billion figure and determined that it is all Chrysler will need to make it until Fiat products arrive and Marchionne can turn the company around.

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