The 10-Second Version (AI Summary)
What happened: Stellantis named Tim Kuniskis chief commercial officer, adding U.S. sales and the dealer network to his leadership of the American brands after Michael Orange left.
Why it matters: Stellantis dealers now have one leader accountable for brands, marketing, sales strategy and the network.
What to do: Check whether every recurring problem in your store has a single named owner.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by the ASOTU team.
One of our team members serves on a nonprofit board, and one lesson keeps proving itself there: assign ownership of problems, and not just expectations for solutions. Ownership keeps things tidy and points everyone's effort in the same direction. A group of people thrashing against the same problem are not a team.
Stellantis just drew that kind of line around U.S. sales.
Who owns U.S. sales at Stellantis now?
Tim Kuniskis does, effective immediately, and we talked through the shakeup on the Automotive State of the Union podcast. Stellantis said Nov. 12 that Kuniskis, who already leads the American brands, adds the chief commercial officer title and takes over U.S. sales and the dealership network. He reports to Pablo Di Si, the former Volkswagen executive newly promoted to North America COO.
Here's how leadership has shifted this year:
March: Chris Feuell leaves; Matt McAlear begins overseeing Chrysler alongside Dodge.
April: Michael Orange leaves Hyundai, where he'd worked since 2008, and joins Stellantis as SVP of U.S. sales and network performance.
Nov. 12: Orange departs. Kuniskis becomes CCO, former Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf returns to lead Dodge, and McAlear focuses only on Chrysler.
The changes land as Stellantis is on track to snap a seven-year streak of annual U.S. sales declines. Volume rose 3.1% through the first nine months, with Ram up 20% and Jeep down 8%.
"By bringing brands, marketing, dealer network and sales strategy together, we're creating an organization with a clear line of decision-making."
What should dealers take from Stellantis' reorganization?
Great organizations put the people who need to decide together in the same room. Stellantis did that by placing brands, marketing, the dealer network and sales strategy under one leader. You can get the same result with one owner or several, as long as the decisions stop happening in silos.
For Stellantis dealers, it also means one name now owns the full commercial relationship, from brand marketing to network performance.
Who owns your store's biggest recurring problem by name? If the answer is "everyone," nobody does.
One owner, one direction
Stellantis has aggressive FaSTLAne 2030 targets and a Jeep brand to turn around. Putting one person in charge won't hit those numbers alone, but it does make clear who answers for them. The same discipline works at a single rooftop.
Watch Episode 1500 of the Automotive State of the Union for the full conversation on Stellantis' new commercial lineup.
