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Sergio Marchionne, who engineered a merger of the auto industry’s weakest companies — Fiat and Chrysler — and turned the combination into a cash-generating machine, died Wednesday at the age of 66.
Marchionne was treated at Zurich’s University Hospital for complications after undergoing what Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV FCAU, +1.58% FCA, -0.25% said was a surgical procedure on his right shoulder in July. The health issues forced the company to unexpectedly remove him as CEO on Saturday, speeding up a departure planned for early 2019 after a decade at the helm of the Italian-American auto maker.
While less known among the general public than predecessors such as Lee Iacocca, Marchionne was a star in the auto industry, and his death marks an end of an era in Detroit where he was one of the last larger-than-life CEOs. He relished challenging auto industry orthodoxy, and was ahead of rivals on some key automotive trends.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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