Report: Zetche Looking Internally to Fill Vacant Mercedes Post

Washington DC August 15, 2005; The AIADA newsletter reported that the Financial Times on Monday said that DaimlerChrysler’s new CEO Dieter Zetsche is looking to fill the chief Mercedes post, vacated by Eckard Cordes, by a company insider, reported Reuters.

According to the Times, an unidentified source reportedly overheard Zetsche say that “an outside manager is "the second-best solution," and that if necessary Zetsche himself would takeover the duties at Mercedes on a temporary basis should a reputable replacement not be found. "It cannot be that we do not have a Mercedes chief at the IAA in Frankfurt," it quoted a company source as saying, referring to next month’s Frankfurt car show.

The paper 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.”