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45 AutoData | August 2018 Four days later the announcement of his death came in a statement from Exor, the financial holding company that controls the majority of FCA’s capital, via John Elkann, heir to the Agnelli family. Just like the time off occasion, no details were given, follo- wed by a request for respect regarding the family’s privacy. And in that short interval, Alfredo Alta- villa, listed as one of Marchionne’s possi- ble successors at FCA, left the company abruptly. The cause of death or the carrying out of any ceremonywas not officially revealed: only a mass at the Turin Cathedral, in Italy, aweek later. Another mass in his honorwas scheduled for September 27 at the US FCA headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. According to the Italian press Marchion- ne suffered an embolism during a surgery at a hospital in Zurich, in Switzerland. The hospital confirmed a surgical procedure and later revealed that the executive was in treatment of a “serious illness” a year ago. But again, nothing more than this was revealed, which helped raise questions about the circumstances of his death - which possibly may never be definitively clarified. The situation prompted some com- plaints from shareholders, and facing this scenario FCA officially declared that the company was unaware of Marchionne’s health report and knew about the criti- cal situation only on that same Saturday, July 21. Marchionne leaves FCA at the top of his list of legacies, the union of Fiat with Chrysler that he dreamed about would aggregate also General Motors, during the crisis that seriously affected the two American automakers in 2009. Although it failed to fully complete its strategy, the executive’s action saved Chrysler from certain bankruptcy and gave new spirit to Fiat - which he had rescued just a few years before from a dramatic financial situation. The process of unification regarding the two compa- nies was skeptically seen with countless times, but Marchionne showed that his bet was correct. As a result, he changed the global scale of the industry forces. As a proof of his vision and capability, the executive had worked in the automo- tive sector only in the last fifteen years: he arrived in Fiat in 2003 without any expe- rience in the area. He was 66 years old. WHO COULD IMAGINE? This photo of the 2014 Geneva Auto Show won a strongly historic and dramatic outlook in 2018: from left to right, Manley, Elkann, Renegade, Marchionne and Altavilla