Key to Chrysler drama: Ruediger Grube

Ruediger Grube: An adviser to Juergen Schrempp who has made a smooth transition into the Dieter Zetsche era.

Bradford Wernle | Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 am The German strategist who played a critical role in bringing Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. together after the 1998 acquisition is now the point man in pulling that same deal apart.

Sources say Ruediger Grube, DaimlerChrysler chief of corporate development, is handling operational details of the process at headquarters in Stuttgart, meeting with bidders and their agents and evaluating their potential as future owners of Chrysler.

"Ruediger Grube is the person who holds it in hand," said a DaimlerChrysler executive who declined to be identified. "He was looked upon as somebody (former CEO) Juergen Schrempp had confidence in. Some people expected him to move away when Schrempp left. But Zetsche has confidence in him, too."

Grube, a skilled communicator who is well liked by colleagues, "is a corporate survivor on his merits, and not on his personal links," said the official.

He served as the trusted lieutenant of Schrempp, the architect of the takeover. Grube headed the complex integration process after the companies joined in 1998, presiding over a series of operational teams.

"One shouldn't underestimate his determination behind his open, friendly and human face," said the executive.

Zetsche, who set the Chrysler sale in motion on Feb. 14 when he announced that "all options" were on the table, also monitors potential buyers closely. And Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda is hosting private equity firms and others at Chrysler's Design Dome in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Grube has been seasoned by fire in his years at DaimlerChrysler and Daimler-Benz. Before Daimler-Benz acquired Chrysler, he helped Schrempp outmaneuver his main rival, popular Mercedes Benz chief Helmut Werner.

Werner wanted to keep Mercedes independent, with its own management board. Schrempp wanted to fold it into Daimler-Benz. At a tense 1996 meeting, Grube calmly presented the facts supporting Schrempp's position, according to the book Taken for a Ride, an account of the deal by journalists Bill Vlasic and Bradley Stertz.

The book described Grube as Schrempp's "eyes and ears," a man who was "in perpetual motion."

Assessing offers for Chrysler promises to be as challenging as the 1998 integration in which Ruediger Grube played such a large role.