Unger remains with Daimler; Chrysler names Bertsch as replacement

Ralph Kisiel
Automotive NewsSue Unger, who was chief information officer and a senior vice president for DaimlerChrysler AG, has chosen to stay with the Daimler side rather than returning to the new privately held Chrysler LLC.

Unger, 57, held those titles since Nov. 1, 1998, the same month and year that DaimlerChrysler stock began trading on stock exchanges worldwide.

Unger will remain with DaimlerChrysler and help with the transition and then retire at the end of this year.

Unger was among the first female chief information officers in the automotive industry.

Her most significant task was the global integration of the information technology systems of the former Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz AG. Unger had been with the former Chrysler Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG for a combined 35 years.

Before the Chrysler and Daimler-Benz merger in 1998, Unger was executive director of Chrysler Corp.’s information and services department. Unger joined Chrysler in September 1972 as a financial analyst in sales and marketing.

Unger was named 2002 “CIO of the Year” by Salomon Smith Barney and was twice named as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News.

The new, private Chrysler has named Jan Bertsch, 50, as the new CIO.

Bertsch had worked under Unger as CIO of the Chrysler Group and Mercedes-Benz for North America. Bertsch joined DaimlerChrysler in 2001, after spending a combined 22 years at Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp.

Bertsch was named as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News in 2005.