CHRISTIAN STREIFF has made a career of waging – and often losing – corporate battles, but the outspoken executive’s exit from carmaker Peugeot may say more about a culture clash in French boardrooms than his own record.
The weekend sacking of the PSA Peugoet Citroën chief executive marked the third time that the 54-year-old engineer and novelist has played for high stakes and lost.
Streiff previously had a a 100-day stint as head of Airbus and a bumpy ride as second-in-command at French glassmaker St-Gobain.
Family-controlled PSA Peugeot Citroën, hit by an unprecedented industry-wide crisis as car sales slump to disastrous lows, fired Streiff on the same day that the head of struggling automotive firm General Motors, Rick Wagoner, was forced out, and replaced by Fritz Henderson.
The “exceptional difficulties faced by the auto industry warranted the change of leadership”, chairman Thierry Peugeot said in a brief statement on Sunday.
Streiff will be replaced by 56-year-old former steel boss Philippe Varin, who worked for more than 20 years for aluminium conglomerate Pechiney, which was bought by Alcan Inc in 2003.
Varin, who is married with four children, later joined the troubled Anglo-Dutch Corus steel company in 2003, leading it back to profitability before successfully managing its merger with Tata Steel in 2007.
Streiff hit back at his dismissal, calling his ousting “incomprehensible”, and noting that the market had appreciated his achievements.
– Reuters