DETROIT -

AR: Did you grow up in Michigan?

Swanson: Yes, in Flint. My father worked in the GM plant for many years as a millwright. We were a large GM family as both my grandfathers worked for General Motors as well.

(Laughter). When you grew up in Flint and had a long family history of working for GM, for the longest time you really didn’t know there was another manufacturer out there! We thought the world consisted of just Buicks and Chevrolets. I did have an uncle working for a VW dealership, so I did know there was an outside world (other than GM), but it was only a vague awareness at best.

AR: You said your father was a millwright. What exactly did that job entail?

Swanson: He was a skilled trades guy … things like working on conveyer belts, changing the tools and dies on the big presses … things like that. He wasn’t a line guy, but he was one who kept everything working. I had a grandfather who was a painter, and the other one was a mechanic. They all worked in the same plant.

AR: Do you have siblings?

Swanson: I have a younger brother and a younger sister — I’m the oldest.

AR: Since you have such a long pedigree in the automotive industry, did your family expect you to stay and work in Flint?

Swanson: I don’t think so. The industry had been good for them, but they wanted me to pursue whatever I wanted to do, to explore all possibilities. I was the first in my family to go to college, and when I graduated high school, the job market was such that I wasn’t going to walk out of high school and get a job at the plant.

My family had an appreciation for a good day’s work. I remember my grandfather had a saying “a little less learning and a little more earning!” He always thought I should learn a trade “in case that school thing didn’t work out.”

Family has always been very important to me; we had a tight family, not only with my immediate family, but with grandparents as well. They (the grandparents) would always come to school activities — I was in the high school choir — and take us fishing and things like that. They were a great influence on all of us.

AR: Were you one of those young people always in trouble?

Swanson: Absolutely not! (laughter) Seriously, I was the oldest, which meant that I got to do a lot of new stuff, but I did everything by the book. I followed the rules and was pretty much a strait-laced kid. Maybe I was a goody-two-shoes,  and I probably still am today! I expect things to be done the right way.

AR: What kind of student were you?

Swanson: In high school I was decent. I graduated (high school) with honors, but I really didn’t try as hard as I should. I could have been a lot better.
I realized that when I got to college, however, you had to do this thing called study! I had to learn to study, and therefore, the first couple of years of college were rather rough. The first year just about overwhelmed me; I didn’t know how to study, the classes were tough. I got into a deep hole early in college, and it took the next couple of years of college to work my way out of it

In hindsight, it may have been the best thing for me because it motivated me. I not only wanted to succeed, but I also did not want to let my parents down.

AR: Before we talk too much about college, can you tell us what you liked to do growing up?

Swanson: I did a lot of the usual things, such as playing Little League baseball in the summer, but I never was really good enough to play high school sports. What I really liked was being in the high school choir; I was a decent singer. I was fortunate enough to be in this 20-person choir.  We traveled a bit, doing festivals and competitions. It was a lot of fun.

AR: Did you ever plan to pursue that talent?

Swanson: Oh, I’d say I was a pretty good high school singer but not good enough to go beyond that. I’d sing some in the church choir…sing a few solos here and there. Mom also sang so we would sometimes sing together. I did sing a duet with a girl at a high school concert in my junior year…I still remember that! (laughter) Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle’s song Just You and I. That was about as brave as I got.

AR: Did you have any high school teachers who influenced you in some way?

Swanson: I would definitely say my choir teacher, Mr. Bushey. He was a very passionate choir guy, and since that was my interest, we hit it off. He was a perfectionist and made sure we had it right.

The other teacher who had a big affect on me was my social studies teacher, Mr. Mazaraki….who we all called Maz. He was this rather kooky old guy that taught all of the subjects that I was really good at…history, social studies. He made that stuff really interesting.

AR: What did you inherit from your parents?

Swanson: Probably the first thing I would say is my sense of right and wrong. They were pretty strict about that, and I think it continues to influence me.
I think my sense of humor comes from my Dad.  My Mom is a very precise woman, very organized. I think it took a while for that to manifest in me, but I like things planned out and having a process in place before beginning a task. I actually see both of them in me.

AR: How about family vacations?

Swanson: Lots of family trips and we had a pretty good time…as good of a time as you can have with five people in a car for long periods of time! My grandmother was Canadian so we went would go to Canada to visit relatives. And we would either fly or drive to Florida to visit the grandparents after they retired there.

I remember one time we drove a ’76 Monte Carlo to Nashville, Tennessee,   that only got about four miles to the gallon. This was during the gas crisis so we pretty much stopped at every gas station on the way down. We joke about it now, but we could not figure out why we went to Nashville since none of us liked country music. But we did go to Opryland, which was a lot of fun.

AR: Did you think you would follow your father and grandfathers in the automotive industry when you were in public school?

Swanson: I had no idea what I wanted to do and certainly no inkling I would wind up in automotive. The only thing I can remember thinking was that I was going to major in political science in college and do something in that field. I was good in social studies, and that was what influenced my thinking.

(laughter) I remember during one of the ceremonies around high school graduation they were giving out awards. I had never won anything in my life. We were sitting in the auditorium; they had given out the math award, the science award, and when they announced the social studies award, they said my name. I was shocked! To this day I have it in my office…the plaque…I couldn’t believe I had won it!
So, in some sort of way, I looked at this plaque and thought this was what I was supposed to do.

AR: Did you think about politics as well?

Swanson: I was interested in politics. I had a teacher at school that always ran for political office — but lost every time — and I would help him out by putting out signs and things like that. I might have harbored the idea I might be a politician.

AR: It’s not too late.

Swanson: (laughter) I think it is.

AR: Tell us about your college experience.

Swanson: I stayed close to home and attended the University of Michigan-Flint. Even though U of M-Flint is a commuter school, and I went home at night, it was a new experience for me. I also had a job as a waiter to help pay for school expenses.

AR: College must have been a big adjustment.

Swanson: It was. I was used to getting multiple choice test questions, and now I was getting an assignment to write a five-page paper on the Chinese revolution. I felt like I was in over my head. I didn’t know how to do that stuff and was not ready for learning in college. It really threw me for a loop.

AR: Were you depressed?

Swanson: I don’t remember being as much depressed as fearful I was going to be kicked out of school. I was probably more embarrassed than anything. I knew something had to change.

So, I decided it was time to change my major; which I changed to business administration. I learned a lot that first year, including the way to study. I realized you are not going to make it through college spending half your day in the game room playing foosball. However, I should point out that I was a darn fine foosball player so it wasn’t a total loss.

Grades had been so easy in high school it took me a year to realize that I had to do things differently in college. Good grades were not going to come without a lot of hard work.

AR: After getting that first year behind you, it sounds like you were ready for your sophomore year.

Swanson: Not only with a new attitude, but also with a plan to have a clean slate at another school. I decided I would go away to a small school in Illinois, Olivet Nazarene University.

But, another funny little thing happened. I had met this girl when I was at U of M-Flint, and when I went to Olivet, I missed her a lot. I think I almost went broke on phone calls back home talking to her. I lasted at Olivet for one semester before I couldn’t stand it any longer and moved back and re-enrolled at U of M-Flint. Fortunately, my credits there transferred back so it didn’t cost me academically.

The break did help I think. I got better grades, and when I came back I was more focused and my grades greatly improved. I learned a lot at Michigan and thought I was ready for the world when I graduated.

AR: You said you graduated in 1989. That was the beginning of a tough economic time. Were you able to find a job right out of college?

Swanson: Yep, waiting tables! (laughter) I kept the job I worked during college while I looked. I went to job fairs, interviews, everything. But it was tough, and nothing came up for a while.

The girl I had spent calling so much when I spent my one semester away from Flint was now my wife, and the only work I could find was the waiter job I had during college. And then that restaurant shut down! I am sure my in-laws were absolutely thrilled with their new son-in-law.

I get a job in telemarketing…I was actually selling magazines over the phone. That lasts for two months. Then a friend of mine from church owned a Ziebart franchise and asked me to go to work for him. Since I knew absolutely nothing about rust proofing cars, I thought it was the perfect job for me.

I kept going to job fairs and standing in long lines with other recent graduates. One day, I got a phone call from a company here in Michigan called Phoenix Group. It was one of the companies I had just happened to have talked to at a job fair months earlier. I barely remember talking with them; my only memory was standing in this long line for two hours and the lady saying she was late for lunch. I probably only spoke to her for two minutes.

AR: Was Phoenix associated with the automotive industry?

Swanson: They were. They worked with Ford, and my first job was to call fleet companies to find out the units they had in operation, what was their fleet mix…things like that. We then compiled a report and sent the information to the fleet rep to work with the fleet company in turning over their fleet. I did that for a few months and then was transferred to another department that called dealers on the phone to update them on the latest incentives in the marketplace. Keep in mind, this is before the internet and the fax machine. Wow, do I sound like an old guy or what?

As was mentioned, there was a recession going on, and Ford was phasing out a position within the company called a fleet-lease specialist. The company then assigned those responsibilities to Phoenix. There were two positions to cover the country. I applied and got one of those positions.  While I was still working for Phoenix, I worked directly on the Ford account and learned a lot about leasing and fleet.

Through the Phoenix Group I did a lot of various things and I stayed with them for about 13 years. I was a project manager and eventually became an account manager where I called on Ford directly.

I really became a Ford guy, which was very different than the automotive environment I grew up in that was all GM. I had to learn it all from scratch about the various brands. My family was always teasing me about Fords. I remember one time going to my grandfather’s in a Mercury Sable. He looked at it and grunted, “That’s a pretty nice looking car.” (laughter) That is all he would say about it.

AR: Phoenix became a business home for you.

Swanson: It did and provided me with a lot mentors as well. When I first went there I was this brash, know-it-all kid who thought he had the world by the tail and who wore these funny, outlandish ties. I had a boss, Ed Dorrington, who was a no-nonsense guy. He pulled me aside one day and told me that learning my job and being respected was more important than being a comedian. But he said it in a really positive way. He’s been a great mentor to me. He taught me how to take my personality and be a professional too.

AR: What came next at Phoenix?

Swanson: One day I got a call from another OEM. How they got my number, I have no idea. They wanted to see if we could do the same work for them that we were doing for Ford. My boss said he didn’t think it would work, and I, rather stupidly, said if the problem was having someone in California, I would be glad to move. He said not to joke about that because they had another opportunity in California and wondered if I would be interested. I don’t think my family was particularly overjoyed at the prospect.

So Phoenix flies my wife and me to Orange County in December where it is 82 degrees, while we had left in a Michigan snowstorm. We do all the pros-and-cons and decide we could do this. It turns out that the job was calling on Lincoln Mercury, which was in the process of moving to Irvine, California. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we packed up the two kids and moved to California! It was a great experience for me. I lived there for five years, and it was some of the best years of my life.

AR:  How did you get involved in CPO?

Swanson: That came about in 2000. Ford announced it was going to start a CPO program, and our company landed the business to do the administrative website, and I was the account lead.  We started setting up CPO meetings around the country, and as the program progressed, I learned more and more about CPO. I got to travel the country talking about the program…trying to get dealers to sign up. It was a blast.

A couple of years later, I get a call from Mike Dennis at Ford who wanted to know if I wanted to work with him back in Detroit. I would be calling on dealers and getting them more involved with CPO. I thought it was a good career move. I really enjoyed the CPO stuff,  so I packed up the family once again and moved back to Michigan as a CPO marketing coordinator.

It was another great experience with great memories. (laughter) I remember I was actually thrown out of the first dealership I visited. The dealer said he was not interested in the program (CPO) and told me to leave! But there were a lot of successes as well. Ford had hired John Beagan as a consultant for the program, so I got to travel with him quite a lot. John is a legend in this business, and I had a front row seat to watch him pitch the program to the dealers. I learned a tremendous amount of CPO knowledge traveling with John for those years. I travelled almost every week all over the country. I loved it. 

AR: Why did you leave Ford?

Swanson: Everyone remembers the challenges at Ford in the mid 2000s. One day my boss comes to me and tells me he had heard about an opening at Audi. Now, in that tough business environment, when your boss comes and tells you about an opening in another company, you have to pay attention! That led to me taking a position with Audi as Regional CPO manager doing CPO in the field with dealers. Essentially, it was the same job, except now I was doing it for a luxury manufacturer.

It was another outstanding experience and allowed me to try a lot of new things. Audi was very supportive of CPO. The regional manager was a guy named Rich Howse, a really great car guy. He was really open to a lot of new ideas, and he let me experiment with a bunch of things. Rich is also a tremendous manager,  and he taught me so much about managing a team of people during that time. That job was a lot of fun. 

I did that for about 3 years when Audi announced it was moving to Virginia.  I was offered a chance to go but by now, our girls were older, and moving again would have been much harder. We decided to not make the move, and I looked at the very real prospect of being without a job.

I got home that night after telling Audi that I would not be moving. As soon as I walked in the door, I get a call from an old friend I worked with at Ford, and he tells me about a company that does advertising effectiveness research that had an opening working with the automotive industry. I got the job with IAG Research out of New York. And, get this, my clients are Chrysler and Ford! I got to stay here in Michigan. IAG was later bought out by Nielsen, and I stayed there until I came to Chrysler.

AR: How did you get to Chrysler?

Swanson: I was at the LA Auto Show last fall and spoke to a friend I worked with at Lincoln Mercury and was now working at Chrysler. It was great catching up, but a few weeks later, she called and told me about the opening at Chrysler for the head of CPO vehicles. I had an interview, thought the opportunity was amazing and was very excited when I got it. I was back in CPO!

AR: You’ve had a lot of different industry jobs. Do you feel each one better prepared you for the one to follow?

Swanson: Definitely. I learned so much at each one; information I draw on today. I was so fortunate and feel like all of my past experiences have been leading me to this job. It’s more than a job to me, it is my passion, and it’s what I love to do.

Doing CPO since 2000, I have seen both dealers and the public really come to appreciate the difference between CPO and used cars. We refer to it as another franchise. We want to put the power of the manufacturer behind the brand to enhance its credibility.  It’s really a whole new opportunity for the dealer.
We have a great program here at Chrysler with an outstanding team.   CPO has really come in to its own, and it is an integral part of the Chrysler strategy. I love the fact that the company is so committed to the program and knows the importance it has, especially on the new-car side.

AR: You cannot work all the time. What do you like to do in your free time?

Swanson: (laughter) I used to play golf, but I have taken a sabbatical!  You are supposed to enjoy your hobby, and I was to the point of not really enjoying it.
My hobbies now include reading a lot. I especially like history and just finished a book on Shiloh from the Civil War. I am now focused on reading about the former presidents; people like Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan. I like to read about our more obscure presidents.

My girls are now 20 and 16 so I am very involved with the family. My youngest daughter plays lacrosse, so I am getting more into that and helping the team out. My wife and I are on the booster board, and last year I was the head statistician and public address announcer for the team. And, to show I am still a kid at heart, I like to play video games, even though my youngest daughter continues to beat me at Madden football and my oldest outscores me in Rock Band.
I like to play the guitar as well. Someday, I am going to grab my guitar — I’m not really that good a player — and go and do a gig somewhere. (laughter) I still remember one time being in front of an audience before a TV taping we were attending in California. As part of the warm-up, the comedian asked if anyone knew how to juggle. I can do a little juggling, and after I finished, the crowd of about 200 roared with applause. I remember looking up at the crowd and thinking, maybe this is what I am supposed to do with my life! Maybe I am supposed to be a performer! My Mom always said I should have been a game-show host.

AR: Finally, is it still fun to come to work?

Swanson:  Yeah, it definitely is.  It is so exciting to have an organization that is willing to try things, to experiment with things. I have a great time when I come in every day. It’s awesome to be surrounded by so many talented people…from the sales and marketing folks to our fabulous remarketing group. I am very grateful that they have welcomed me into Chrysler. 

Eric Swanson is the head of certified pre-owned vehicles for Chrysler Group.