In late breaking news out Thursday, the moment much of the industry has been waiting for finally came to pass. The leadership team for Chrysler/Fiat has been revealed. And heading up both Chrysler and Fiat as chief executive officer will be Sergio Marchionne.

The company announced the formation of a group executive council, similar to the one that managed Fiat until the demerger of the Fiat Industrial activities.

Basically, the council will have the highest authority within Fiat, outside of its board of directors, that is.

The council is responsible for reviewing the operating performance of the business, setting performance targets, making key strategic decisions and investments for the group and sharing best practices, including the development and deployment of key human resources, management explained Thursday.

This council will have four main groupings.

The first will include regional operations groups for car manufacturing and sales, plus parts and service (MOPAR), automotive components (mainly Magneti Marelli) and systems and castings (Teksid and Camau).

Each group will be the responsibility of a chief operating officer, who is charged with driving the organization through a regional management team, which will be announced later, but before Sept. 1, when these new appointments take place.

The COOs will be accountable for profit and loss for their regions and business, along with managing regional resources, including manufacturing and commercial activities.

COOs include:

NAFTA (including Chrysler): Marchionne
Europe, Africa and Middle East: Gianni Coda
Latin America: Cledorvino Belini
Asia: Michael Manley
Parts and Service (MOPAR): Pietro Gorlier
Components (Magneti Marelli): Eugenio Razelli
Teksid/Comau: Riccardo Tarantini

The second grouping is designed to be reflective of the group’s focus and emphasis on its brands. Basically, each of the global or potentially global brands is represented in the council, management stressed. And they will be responsible for improving and developing an appropriate brand portfolio and to assist in the development of adequate commercial and marketing strategies in each of the group’s operating regions.

The brand heads appointed to the GEC include:

Fiat: Oliver Francios
Commercial Vehicles: Lorenzo Sistino
Alfa/Abarth/Maserati: Harald Wester
Lancia/Chrysler: Saad Chehab
Jeep: Michael Manley
Dodge: Reid Bigland

These executives will be supported by chief creative officer Francois.

The third group includes industrial process leaders, who are charged with pushing for “consistency and rigor” across operating regions, as well as optimizing capital allocation choices in the future:

Chief technology officer: Harald Wester
Design: Lorenzo Ramaciotti
Manufacturing Technology and Coordination: Stefan Ketter
Group purchasing: Vilmar Fistarol
Quality: Doug Betts
Powertrain Coordinator: Bob Lee
Product portfolio management: Mark Chernoby

The final group features executives who will lead support and corporate functions.

Business development: Alfredo Altavilla
Fiat services & holdings: Alessandro Baldi
Chief financial officer: Richard Palmer
Chief human resource officer: Linda Knoll

The council will turn to Baldi as executive coordinator.

“We have now reached the right moment to step on the accelerator of the Fiat-Chrysler integration,” said Marchionne on Thursday.

“These appointments are the result of an extensive process of evaluation of the technical and leadership skills of the individuals who have been appointed to the GEC. But equally important is the fact that they reflect the multi-cultural geographically diverse nature of our business. We recognize in these leaders the future of Fiat-Chrysler as an efficient, multi-national competitor in a global automotive marketplace,” he continued.

He went on to add, “It is a privilege for me to have the opportunity to lead this group of people and see them grow, to watch them as they transform challenge into success and into faith in themselves and what they can achieve,” he concluded.

To see an organization chart as to how these new roles relate, visit http://www.fiatspa.com/en-US/media_center/FiatDocuments/2011/July/Organizational_chart_Group_Executive_Council.pdf.