DETROIT — After nearly a decade of developing and renewing its leadership team internally, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has hired a pair of outsiders — including a high-ranking Amazon executive — for leading roles in its most profitable region, North America.
FCA CEO Mike Manley named Mark Stewart the region's new COO, a job held at the beginning of this year by CEO Sergio Marchionne before his death in July and then by Manley.
Stewart, 51, spent just over a year at Amazon, where he was vice president of operations, managing customer fulfillment across 200 facilities with 180,000 employees, Manley said in an employee email that FCA released publicly Thursday.
An electrical engineer by background, Stewart was COO for auto supplier ZF TRW after rising through TRW's executive ranks. FCA said Stewart also would become a member of the automaker's Group Executive Council, its highest management decision-making body.
