 |
Robert Louis Nardelli (born May 17, 1948) is an American businessman who was the CEO of Freedom Group from September 2010 to March 2012. Prior to that role, Nardelli served as chairman and CEO of Chrysler from August 2007 to April 2009 and CEO of The Home Depot from December 2000 to January 2007. Before joining The Home Depot, Nardelli spent most of his career at General Electric and had risen to become one of the top three executives competing to succeed Jack Welch. [1]
Born in Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Nardelli attended Rockford Auburn High School in Rockford, Illinois and received his Bachelor of Science in business from Western Illinois University in Macomb, where he was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Nardelli also earned an MBA from the University of Louisville. He is married to Susan L. Schmulbach with four children and attends Roman Catholic church. [2]
He joined General Electric in 1971 [3] as an entry-level manufacturing engineer. From 1988 to 1991, Nardelli was an executive for a division of the construction equipment maker, J. I. Case Company, which was then part of Tenneco.
By 1995, he had risen to president and CEO of GE Power Systems, also having the title of GE senior vice president. Nardelli was often known as "Little Jack", after his mentor Jack Welch, whom Nardelli had ambitions to succeed as CEO of GE. When Jack Welch retired as chairman and CEO of GE, a lengthy and well-publicized succession planning saga ensued. Nardelli competed with James McNerney and Jeff Immelt to succeed Welch. With Immelt winning the three-way race, Nardelli and McNerney left GE (as was Welch's plan). About ten minutes after Welch let him go, Nardelli received a job offer from Ken Langone, who at the time was on the boards of both GE and The Home Depot.
Nardelli became CEO of The Home Depot in December 2000 despite having no retail experience. Using the Six Sigma management strategy used at GE, he dramatically overhauled the company and replaced its entrepreneurial culture of innovative product design with one focused on relentless cost-cutting. [4] He changed the decentralized management structure by eliminating and consolidating division executives. He also installed processes and streamlined operations, most notably implementing a computerized automated inventory system and centralizing supply orders at the headquarters.
Nardelli was credited with doubling the sales of the chain and improving its competitive position. Revenue increased from $45.74 billion in 2000 to $81.51 billion in 2005, while net earnings after tax rose from $2.58 billion to $5.84 billion. During Nardelli's tenure, The Home Depot stock was essentially steady while competitor Lowe's stock doubled, which along with his $240 million compensation eventually earned the ire of investors. [5] His blunt, critical and autocratic management style turned off employees and the public. Nardelli was notably criticized for cutting back on knowledgeable full-time employees with experience in the trades and replacing them with part-time help with little relevant experience. [6] This move reduced costs, but hurt customer service at a time when Lowe's was making inroads nationwide. While the board strongly stood by him for most of his tenure, questions about his leadership mounted in 2006, and in an ominous portent of the near future, he was the only director present at the annual meeting. At that meeting, he only allowed shareholders to speak for one minute each. [7] Nardelli and the board reached a mutual agreement for Nardelli to resign on January 3, 2007; his severance package was estimated at $210 million. [8] [9] He was succeeded by The Home Depot vice chairman and executive vice president, Frank Blake. Blake had served as Nardelli's deputy at both GE Power Systems and Home Depot.
During his tenure at The Home Depot, Nardelli met President George W. Bush at the White House in 2002 and was appointed to Bush's Council on Service and Civic Participation (although he is no longer a member). [10] Nardelli also hosted a garden reception/fundraiser for Bush at his Atlanta home on May 20, 2004. [11]
While CEO of Home Depot, Nardelli was also briefly on the board of directors for Coca-Cola, starting in 2001.
On August 5, 2007, he became chairman and CEO of Chrysler, which had recently been taken private by private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management. His annual salary at Chrysler was $1, with other compensation not publicly disclosed. (It's rumored that the terms were that he wouldn't be paid unless Chrysler succeeded. If they did succeed, he would be paid a salary along the lines of $30 million.) [12]
On February 17, 2008, before his first Daytona 500 race as Chrysler CEO, Nardelli guaranteed that Dodge would win the race for the first time since 2002, and that he would award a $1 million bonus to the Dodge team that did it. Ryan Newman, the driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, fulfilled this promise, and his car owner Roger Penske collected the $1 million bounty. [13]
On December 4, 2008, in an appearance on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer , Nardelli was asked, "So what do you say about the argument that the Japanese, the Germans, Koreans make better cars than the Americans?" He responded, "We spent about half a billion dollars in the first several months. Our warranty costs are down 29%. It's an interesting comparison because in the hearing today, going around the panel, the majority of the Senators said that citing specific vehicles that they own that they've got 60-, 70-, 80,000 miles. The comment was you guys are making them too good and therefore, we're not buying vehicles and we're contributing to your problem. That was from the Senators on the committee today." [14]
On March 17, 2009, Nardelli said that Chrysler Financial would require a second round of loans. [15] On April 21, 2009, it was alleged by an unnamed "federal watchdog agency" that a $750 million loan from the government was turned down, on the grounds that it would have required that executive compensation be capped. According to contemporary media coverage "as part of the economic stimulus package, Congress approved compensation limits, and the Treasury is working on clarifying what the firms must do to comply with the rules. In other words, the executives were asked to sign the waivers without knowing what specific limits the Treasury might set." [16] On April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The same day, Nardelli announced that he would leave the company as soon as the bankruptcy was over and his replacement was announced—later determined to be Sergio Marchionne [17] —who would likely face a pay cap. [18]
Robert Nardelli became CEO of the Freedom Group in September 2010 as the North Carolina-based gun maker searched for a permanent CEO. In March 2012, he stepped down as CEO of the Freedom Group, and as the head of the operations and advisory business of Cerberus Capital Management LP. [19] [20] He is now operating XLR-8 LLC, an investment and advisory firm.
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-Benz was formed with the merger of Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in 1926. The company was renamed DaimlerChrysler upon acquiring the American automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corporation in 1998, and was again renamed Daimler AG upon divestment of Chrysler in 2007. In 2021, Daimler AG was the second-largest German automaker and the sixth-largest worldwide by production. In February 2022, Daimler was renamed Mercedes-Benz Group.
John Francis Welch Jr. was an American business executive, chemical engineer, and writer. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001.
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if the highest-ranking executive is the chairperson and CEO. The COO is responsible for the daily operation of the company and its office building and routinely reports to the highest-ranking executive—usually the chief executive officer (CEO).
David M. Cote is an American businessman. Cote previously worked for General Electric and TRW Inc. before he was appointed chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Honeywell in 2002, following their acquisition by AlliedSignal. Cote also sat on the JP Morgan Chase risk committee during the period in which the firm lost $6 billion trading credit derivatives. Cote stepped down as CEO at Honeywell at the end of March 2017 and was succeeded by Darius Adamczyk. Cote is currently the executive chairman of Vertiv.
Jeffrey Robert Immelt is an American business executive currently working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously served as the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017, and the CEO of GE's Medical Systems division from 1997 to 2000.
Frederick Wallace Smith is an American business magnate and investor. He is the founder and chairman of FedEx Corporation, the world's largest transportation company. On June 1, 2022, Smith stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman, and was replaced by Raj Subramaniam. He is considered one of the most successful transportation entrepreneurs in the world.
Jürgen Erich Schrempp was the CEO of Daimler-Benz from May 1995 to December 31, 2005, which became DaimlerChrysler, a German-American car and truck manufacturer. Following a decision of the board taken on July 28, 2005, he was succeeded on January 1, 2006, by Chrysler frontman Dieter Zetsche. Schrempp was the architect of the merger joint venture between Daimler Benz and Chrysler, which ultimately ended in failure when Chrysler was sold in 2007.
Lawrence Arthur "Larry" Bossidy is an American author and retired businessman. He served as CEO of AlliedSignal in the 1990s, prior to which he spent more than 30 years rising through executive positions at General Electric.
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is a global alternative investment firm with assets across credit, private equity, and real estate strategies. The firm is based in New York City, and run by Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992, with William L. Richter, who serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Thomas William LaSorda, is a Canadian-American automobile industry executive who served as CEO and President of the Chrysler Group. In December 2011, he joined the board of Fisker Automotive and assumed the role of CEO until his resignation in August 2012.
Francis Stanton Blake is an American businessman and lawyer, who was the chairman and CEO of The Home Depot from January 2007 to May 2014. Prior to this he worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric. He was a longtime protégé of Robert Nardelli.
Sergio Marchionne was an Italian-Canadian businessman, widely known for his turnarounds of the automakers Fiat and Chrysler, his business acumen and his outspoken and often frank approach, especially when dealing with unpalatable issues related to his companies and the automotive industry.
John Gerard Stumpf is an American business executive and retail banker. He was the chairman and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo, one of the Big Four banks of the United States. He was named CEO in June 2007, elected to the board of directors in June 2006, and named president in August 2005. He became chairman in January 2010. Stumpf resigned as chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo on October 12, 2016, after a scandal involving customer accounts and subsequent pressure from the public and lawmakers. He was succeeded by Timothy J. Sloan.
The Home Depot, Inc., often simply referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States. In 2021, the company had 490,600 employees and more than $151 billion in revenue. The company is headquartered in incorporated Cobb County, Georgia, with an Atlanta mailing address.
Athenahealth is a private American company that provides network-enabled services for healthcare and point-of-care mobile apps in the United States.
Kenneth D. Lewis is the former CEO, president, and chairman of Bank of America, the second largest bank in the United States and twelfth largest by total asset in the world. While CEO of Bank of America, Lewis was noted for purchasing Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch resulting in large losses for the bank and necessitating financial assistance from the federal government. On September 30, 2009, Bank of America confirmed that Lewis would be retiring by the end of the year. Lewis was replaced by Brian Moynihan as president and CEO and Walter Massey as chairman of the board.
The history of Chrysler involves engineering innovations, high finance, wide alternations of profits and losses, various mergers and acquisitions, and multinationalization. Chrysler, a large automobile manufacturer, was founded in the 1920s and continues under the name Stellantis North America.
Walter James "Jim" McNerney Jr. is a business executive who was President and CEO of The Boeing Company, June 2005–July 2015. McNerney was also Chairman from June 2005 until March 1, 2016. McNerney oversaw development of the Boeing 737 MAX.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, commercial vehicles, auto parts and production systems. The Italian holding company Exor was the largest shareholder and owner of voting rights. At the time it was the world's eighth largest automobile maker. The group was established in October 2014 through the merger of Chrysler Group and Fiat S.p.A. Its corporate headquarters were domiciled in Amsterdam and its financial headquarters were in London. The holding company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Milan's Borsa Italiana. Exor, an Italian investment group controlled by the Agnelli family, owned 29.19% of FCA and controlled 44.31% through a loyalty voting mechanism.
John L. Flannery is an American business executive. He succeeded Jeff Immelt as the eleventh CEO and tenth Chairman of General Electric, serving as CEO from August 2017 until October 1, 2018. Prior to ascending to the CEO role, Flannery held leadership roles inside GE for nearly 30 years, heading GE Healthcare, GE India and other business units throughout his career.
In 2000, Marcus retired and brought on Bob Nardelli as CEO. Nardelli had been one of Jack Welch's hatchet men at GE, and he spent the next seven years driving down costs—at the expense of The Home Depot's reputation for innovation...Marcus forced Nardelli out in 2007 and brought in a Home Depot veteran to right the ship by returning the focus to developing and selling innovative products, exclusive to Home Depot.
{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)