The head of FCA Australia (Veronica Johns) resigned this week, despite rising sales; and will be replaced by Pat Dougherty, currently  the vice president in charge of Mopar’s parts and service division, which includes customer care over all North American dealerships.  Mr. Dougherty was also the head of Fiat North America and in charge of fleet sales.

pat dougherty - australia

The biggest success story for FCA Australia has been Fiat, whose sales doubled year-over-year, though some of that boost was from the Fiat Freemont version of Dodge Journey. Since the only Dodge sold in Australia is the Journey itself, sold only as a high-end version (akin to Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country in North America), Dodge sales suffered a bit, but are still 2% higher. Jeep is up 41%, Alfa Romeo 31%, and Fiat Professional up 9%. Only the Chrysler brand has fallen — down by 31%.

Ms. Johns, who had been with Chrysler Australia for 16 years, said she was stepping down for personal reasons. Mr. Dougherty will take over from Ms. Johns on December 1; he joined Chrysler in 1983.

In other Australian news, FCA replaced Karla Leach, its director of corporate communications, with Lucy McLellan, after Ms. Leach resigned.

(From drive.au , via  “Hemi 265.”)