Incoming DaimlerChrysler chief executive Dieter Zetsche wants a company insider to replace Eckhard Cordes as head of its Mercedes Car Group division, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Monday, according to Reuters.
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An outside manager is “the second-best solution,” the paper reportedly quoted an unidentified source close to Zetsche as saying, adding he was prepared to take on the Mercedes job himself on a temporary basis if no replacement was found soon.
“It cannot be that we do not have a Mercedes chief at the IAA in Frankfurt,” the paper quoted a company source as saying, referring to next month’s Frankfurt motor show.
Reuters noted that Cordes, who took over at Mercedes in October after heading the commercial vehicles business, quit when the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker tapped Chrysler chief Zetsche to replace Juergen Schrempp as CEO at the turn of the year.
The paper reportedly said Thomas Weber, the management board member responsible for research and technology, had the best chance to succeed Cordes because he had run a Mercedes assembly plant and developed engines for Mercedes.
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