Opel CEO Du Jour: Who's Next?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

How would you feel if you start your new job and people greet you by speculating who will replace you? This is how Thomas Sedran must feel. Only hours after he has been made the new interim CEO of Opel, German media speculates who will be next in his ejection seat in Rüsselsheim. The roster of likely candidates is not encouraging.

The always well-informed Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( it had called Sedran’s promotion correctly) offers a shortlist of likely managers. All are past their use-by date.

  • One is Rainer Schmückle, the former Daimler Manager who was replaced by Wolfgang Bernhard in 2010. Schmückle has a reputation for alienating the works council. Two years ago, Schmückle already had refused the offered CEO job at Opel.
  • Another is the former Continental CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann. After leaving Conti, he was made head of Volkswagen’s China business. He lost that job during a recent management reshuffle, and was shunted to running Skoda, Volkswagen’s spent fuel pond for formerly hot executives.
  • The last option offered by the FAZ is infamous Wendelin Wiedeking. Nuff said.

Reuters offers an unexpected candidate. A banker told Reuters that “the head of the European car parts suppliers association CLEPA, Jean-Marc Gales, could be a strong external candidate to replace Stracke. The Luxembourg native speaks fluent French and German and knows both companies intimately, having worked as Opel sales chief and most recently as head of both the Peugeot and Citroen brands.”

In the meantime, a list of former Opel CEOs is making the rounds in Germany. It won’t make the talent scouting easier.

Die Opel-Chefs seit 1948 im Überblick:

– Edward W. Zdunek 01.11.1948 – 28.02.1961

– Nelson J. Stork 01.03.1961 – 01.03.1966

– L. Ralph Mason 01.03.1966 – 30.09.1970

– Alexander A. Cunningham 01.10.1970 – 31.01.1974

– John P. Mc Cormack 01.02.1974 – 29.02.1976

– James F. Waters, jr. 01.03.1976 – 31.08.1980

– Robert C. Stempel 01.09.1980 – 05.02.1982

– Ferdinand Beickler 05.02.1982 – 31.01.1986

– Dr. Horst W. Herke 01.02.1986 – 31.03.1989

– Louis R. Hughes 01.04.1989 – 03.07.1992

– David J. Herman 04.07.1992 – 18.06.1998

– Cary Cowger 19.06.1998 – 31.10.1998

– Robert W. Hendry 01.11.1998 – 31.03.2001

– Carl-Peter Forster 01.04.2001 – 31.03.2004

– Hans H. Demant 01.04.2004 – 15.01.2009

– David N. (Nick) Reilly 15.01.2009 – 08.04.2011

– Karl-Friedrich Stracke 11.04.2011 – 12.07.2012

– Steve Girsky 12.07.2012 – 17.07.2012

– Thomas Sedran 17.07.2012 – ???

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Felix Hoenikker Felix Hoenikker on Jul 17, 2012

    Whoever takes this job should ask for her pay to be deposited daily into her bank account. Just to avoid any hard feelings should things not work out.

  • Sector 5 Sector 5 on Jul 17, 2012

    Sedran a hokey pokey rented rubber stamp while das fallbeil readies for Opel. Will they sponge the blade between drops?

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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