Just two weeks after Chrysler Financial annunciate that it was exiting the auto leasing business, company’s two top executives stepped down from their individual positions.
Paul Knauss, who was the financial president and CEO of the company and William Jones, who was the COO, both declared their retirement immediately after the announcement made by the company.

Thomas Gilman will take the place of Paul Knauss as the CEO and vice chairman of the company. He has earlier served as the Chief Financial Officer of the company and was most recently a senior advisor for Cerberus, which is the private equity owner of Chrysler.

Darryl Jackson will take the place of William Jones as the COO of the company and will also handle the sales and marketing department of the company as well. Jackson previously headed Chrysler’s U.S. Sales as he was the vice president of the company.

Knauss and Jones "have made significant contributions to Chrysler Financial’s success over the years," Gilman said in a statement.

"While it is difficult to lose two seasoned leaders, Chrysler Financial is on solid ground, and I appreciate their dedication and commitment to ensuring the company is well positioned for the future."

The company announced that it will merge the positions by naming Gilman executive vice chairman and CEO. It also said the decision will allow the organization to "focus on its core business."

The company decided to exit the leasing business because of declining residual values on leases.

Companies like General Motors and Ford Motor Co. have taken billion-dollar charges just because they run their leasing businesses. As Chrysler is a privately held company, it is not needed for the company to disclose its charges.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Chrysler. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.