ATLANTA — Fred Schwab, a Detroiter who helped steer Porsche out of the pits of the early 1990’s recession, died July 9 following a brief battle with cancer. He was 81.
Schwab was CEO of Porsche Cars North America for more than a decade.
He engineered a management overhaul, in part by hiring former Toyota managers to instill the Japanese automaker’s vaunted lean operating methods and help improve Porsche product quality.
Under his watch, Porsche introduced key new models in North America. They included the midengine Boxster roadster, which gave new buyers a sub-$40,000 MSRP entry to the brand, as well as the Cayenne, Porsche’s daring offering in the SUV and crossover segment.
The product expansion fueled a new era of sales for Porsche, with volume rising nearly sevenfold during Schwab’s tenure.
“Fred laid the groundwork for our success today by leading the rebound in North America of Porsche as a strong, independent brand,” Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said in a statement. “Along the way, Fred achieved many landmarks that still shape our world. Through it all, he was a charismatic leader with a sense of fun.”
Schwab was a former accountant and later an executive with the German supplier and trailer manufacturer Fruehauf. He was recruited to Porsche in 1985 to serve in an administrative and planning role.
When he was handed the top job at Porsche in 1992, after the trough of the U.S. recession, the brand racked up sales of just 4,115. In 2003, the year Schwab retired, Porsche sold 28,417 vehicles.
In 2019, the brand’s U.S. deliveries tallied 61,568 behind five nameplates: the famed 911, the Boxster, the Panamera and two SUVs — the Cayenne and Macan. Porsche added another nameplate this year — the all-electric Taycan.
“We’ve gone from disaster to pretty good success,” Schwab told Autoweek magazine in 2003. “That’s going to be the major legacy — that the face of Porsche has changed in North America.”
Schwab also created Porsche Financial Services and relocated the company’s U.S. headquarters from Reno, Nev. — where it had been focused on its biggest U.S. market, California — to Atlanta.
Toward the end of his stint, Schwab ushered Porsche into the utility vehicle segment with the launch of the Cayenne.
It was a controversial move for the purveyor of sexy two-door sports cars.
But it proved to be prescient. The Cayenne today is Porsche’s second-bestselling vehicle.
“It is always easier to not do something,” Schwab said during a Wharton marketing club presentation in 2002.
“But the challenge in business is to do something that will make you stronger.”
Mike Geylin, president of Kermish-Geylin Public Relations, said Schwab was “decisive, smart and understood the business — definitely the right person for the position at the time.”
While Schwab had a finance background, he also took a keen interest in product and media relations.
Schwab “attended all the product launches we put together while he was president,” said Geylin, whose firm was Porsche’s outside PR agency for about two decades beginning in 1993.
Schwab was instrumental in nurturing the brand’s fan base in the U.S. In 2001, he presided over the first Rennsport Reunion motorsport event, held in Lime Rock, Conn. The event, hosted at various U.S. racetracks, has turned into the world’s largest gathering of Porsche enthusiasts and is a celebration of brand culture.
Schwab also was a big supporter of the Porsche Club of America. He famously offered $500 rebates to the club’s 52,000 members on a new 2001 or 2002 Boxster base model, or $1,000 for the 2001 or 2002 Boxster S.
The discounts didn’t sit well with Porsche AG’s then-CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, who feared that discounts would tarnish the brand.