Fisker Names Ex-Chrysler Boss Tom Lasorda As New CEO
Today’s a big day for beleaguered automaker Fisker. The company announced that former Chrysler CEO Tom Lasorda would be joining the company as its new CEO, after joining Fisker’s board in December.
Company founder Henrik Fisker’s role remains unclear following the announcement, but Lasorda helped run Chrysler during the tumultuous time when it was owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. Chrysler eventually declared bankruptcy under the firm’s ownership in 2009.
Fisker is now facing the prospect of having $336 million in loans from the Department of Energy frozen, and is now courting private equity firms to help raise capital. Fisker is set to debut their next model, the Surf station wagon, at the 2012 Paris Auto Show in September.
More by Derek Kreindler
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They're bringing in "a name" to show that someone who knows the industry still has confidence in them. "A Player" wouldn't sign on to a losing team, would he? Therefore things must be OK, right? Same theory as paying executives huge bonuses to stay onboard when a major company is about to fall into bankruptcy. It's all about the appearance, and if there's any actual business benefit, that's just gravy. I suspect Tommy is a little bored in retirement and is in this just for the fun of the game - imagine! A small company where you could make decisions in days instead of months, AND the things you decide would actually happen. I could be tempted out of a secure retirement to sign onto a losing cause just for the pleasure of the game. Good luck to him!
Joe Biden will likely be unemployed early in 2013. I think he'd be the perfect guy to run the new Fisker plant in Delaware. Probably within battery range of Joe's home too.
Now what they really need is to hire good ole TOMMY Lasorda. He'd run right over to the DoE chief Steven Chu and give him a piece of his mind "What do ya mean you're suspending the loan? You loaned money to *$% Chrysler, you loaned money to *$% Tesla, you loaned money to *& GM, and you wanna cut us off? are you *$%& blind? No product? What do you call this 5000 *&$% pound car staring you in the face? How the hell did somebody so *&$% stupid get a Nobel Prize anyways?....
That other LaSorda would probably order them to paint all the cars "Dodger Blue" (or "Old Blue Eyes Sinatra")...which come to think of it, isn't that bad of an idea.