Ken Levy spent
22 years in Europe
preparing for his job
with DaimlerChrysler.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
Ilir
hen Ken Levy was grow-
ing up as a typical Jewish
boy in the boroughs of
New York, he decided he
didn't want to be a lawyer, like his father,
or a doctor, like his uncles, because they
received phone calls from clients and
patients at all times of the night and on
weekends, disrupting their family life.
So, he became a public relations man.
Now, as vice president of communica-
tions for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler
Group, Levy gets phone calls from the
news media and others at all times of the
night and on weekends. But he has come
to accept that way of life as part of a
career spent mostly in Europe — a career
that turned more hectic and more excit-
ing when he assumed the
DaimlerChrysler PR job in November
2000.
He's dealing with tough executives
from a hard-line company that merged
with the old Chrysler Corp. a few years
ago, facing an often-hostile group of
automotive news media, handling con-
troversial issues involving financial losses,
employee layoffs, shuffling of top execu-
tives, discrimination lawsuits, product
recalls. And he's constantly traveling
around the world.
high school English for a few years, then
Levy, 53, calls it a rewarding experi-
married a German woman and moved to
ence and is proud to be one of only a
Dusseldorf for a while to be closer to her
few Jewish vice presidents in a firm he
family.
describes as "an international company
He returned to the U.S. and went to
with an American heart."
Washington, D.C., to work in the U.S.
The company has had its ups and
Labor Department under the Ford and
downs in the highly cyclical and fiercely
Carter administrations. He was ready to
competitive auto industry in recent years. earn more money when a former student
First, it escaped a buyout attempt by for-
called and told him about a job opening
mer Chairman Lee Iacocca and financier
in public relations at Ford Motor •
Kirk Kerkorian, then reached a milestone Company — in Europe.
in 1998 with the "merger of equals"
He joined Ford in the communica-
between German-based Daimler-Benz
tions office in Cologne in 1977, embark-
AG and Chrysler Corp.
ing on a 22-year portion of his automo-
In January 2001, DaimlerChrysler AG
tive career. After five years, he switched
unveiled a three-year, $4 billion restruc-
to the Opel Division of General Motors,
turing effort, including the elimination
first in- Germany, then in Zurich,
of 26,000 jobs, and setting financial tar-
Switzerland. He reached a crossroads in
gets that called for breaking even this
his life in 1999 when he left GM as exec-
year and making a profit in 2003.
utive director of media relations to
"We have an excellent turnaround plan become an independent consultant, then
in effect with the full backing of our
got divorced a year later.
board," Levy declared, "but we went
"I was pleased to be part of GM's
through some tough times and heart-
growth years in Europe and helped in
wrenching layoffs last year. We had to do
the strong development of the Opel
this in order to cut costs.
line," he said, "and I felt I accomplished
"One of the highlights of our turn-
all that I could. Its a great company. I
around effort is the fact we have the
did consulting work for some high-tech
youngest product lineup in the industry
companies, then decided I had been in
... an average of 2.1 [development] years
Europe long enough, and I returned to
per vehicle. And there's nothing as
my New York roots."
American as the Jeep Liberty, the Dodge
Levy took an apartment in Manhattan,
Ram truck and the PT Cruiser.
which he still maintains along with his
Americans have given a warm welcome
Birmingham residence, but wasn't unem-
to our leadership and our products, and
ployed long before Chrysler, impressed
the results will start showing this year."
by his German background, contacted
Often being in the center of controver- him and offered him his current
sy on a world stage is a far cry from the
job."Ken made the right moves when he
old days in Scarsdale and Yonkers, N.Y.,
took over the top Chrysler PR job," said
when, as a boy, Levy helped his father
Doron Levin, former Free Press business
chant Kiddush on Friday nights in heavi- columnist, now with Bloomberg News
ly Jewish neighborhoods where they all
in Southfield. "He got all of
ate Chinese food on Sundays and there
DaimlerChrysler's bad news out of the
were only a few gentiles in his school.
way as soon as possible — news about
"When I was young, I thought
cutbacks, layoffs, executive firings, finan-
absolutely everyone was Jewish — just
cial losses and so forth.
that some were different kinds of Jews
"Then he started the company on the
than others," he said. "I had a traditional
toad to positive news about new prod-
Reform Jewish upbringing."
ucts, investments and personnel
Levy attended Yonkers College, then
announcements. Also, I'm sure his fluen-
Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
cy in German has stood him in good
Tenn., where he received a degree in
stead with the old Mercedes faction of
political science — not exactly in keep-
the company."
ing with his future career. He worked at
Paul Eisenstein, a long-time automo-
his father's golf driving range, taught
tive journalist and head of the Detroit
Bureau and Car Connection in Pleasant
Ridge, pointed out that Levy inherited a
difficult position when he joined
Chrysler. "It's a different kind of auto-
motive company with executives who
are different than any in the business,"
he said.
"I have great respect for Ken. He's
candid, forthright, has integrity and he
knows the product. He's a good PR man
because he can balance the needs of
DaimlerChrysler with those of the auto-
motive media."
Levy feels he is treated fairly by the
media. "Journalists have an important
job to do, and I'll always defend the
right of the U.S. media to get it done,"
he said. "And, of course, communica-
tions is a crucial element of our job."
There are 80 public relations employ-
ees in his domain, including several
Jews: Mary Beth Halprin, media rela-
tions; Marcie Greenfield, research; Eileen
Wunderlich, communications strategies;
and Brian Zvibleman, product commu-
nications.
Levy has never experienced anti-
Semitism in his career, "and I've lived
half of my life in Europe, mostly in
Germany," he said. "There have been no
anti-Semitism problems on the job and
none in social settings, and especially
none in Germany I feel that the
Germans are the real architects and the
drivers of modern Western Europe."
Levy often travels to Germany for
meetings, sometimes to Berlin or
Stuttgart just for the day, plus England
and other parts of Europe. He likes to
visit Zurich, where one of his two
daughters, Sonja, 20, lives with his for-
mer wife.
Sonja works for the Claims Resolution
Tribunal there, helping resolve claims of
Holocaust victims. His daughter Jessica,
22, is studying music business manage-
ment in New York. Visiting her has
almost turned him into a New York
commuter, often leaving Detroit
Thursday night, working in Chrysler's
New York office on Friday, spending the
weekend, then returning to Detroit.
While Levy is entitled to a large, luxu-
rious office at DaimlerChrysler's Auburn
Hills headquarters, he maintains smaller,
less-pretentious quarters with a glass wall
so he can see and be closer to his
employees. He keeps a page of a calen-
dar permanently turned to a picture of
the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
"I was at the Frankfurt Motor Show
on Sept. 11 and, as a native. New Yorker,
I eras totally shocked and horrified by
the terrorist attacks. I had just been on a
street next to the WTC a few weeks
before, and I always marveled at the
Twin Towers." ❑
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