The president and CEO of automotive seating supplier Adient will retire at the end of the year, leaving the CFO to take the reins of the company.

Doug Del Grosso, who took the top job in 2018, will resign effective Dec. 31 and give up his membership on the board, the Plymouth, Mich., company announced Wednesday ahead of its quarterly earnings report. CFO Jerome Dorlack will step into the leadership role, while Mark Oswald, vice president and treasurer and head of investor relations and corporate communications, will succeed Dorlack.

Fritz Henderson, nonexecutive chairman of Adient’s board, thanked Del Grosso for “his exceptional contributions” and said he looks forward to a smooth transition.

“Since joining the company in 2018, Doug has been instrumental in establishing a strong foundation for Adient through his strategic direction and unwavering focus on operational excellence,” Henderson said in a news release. “His leadership has resulted in outstanding operational and financial improvements.”

Del Grosso, a veteran turnaround leader of automotive suppliers, took over Adient shortly after its decision to ax plans for a $100 million headquarters in downtown Detroit. At the time, the company struggled mightily with being profitable following its spinoff from Johnson Controls in 2016. As head of one of the world’s largest auto suppliers, Del Grosso cut costs, streamlined operations and turned the company’s focus from pure revenue growth to profitability.

With $15.4 million in compensation in 2022, Del Grosso is among the highest paid CEOs in southeast Michigan, along with several of his counterparts at large Tier 1 suppliers.

“It has been an honor to work with the Adient team and lead this great company,” Del Grosso said in the release. “I am truly proud of everything we have accomplished.”

In an interview at Adient’s Plymouth Technical Center this year, Del Grosso explained how he has made the company more deliberate in walking away from business it doesn’t like and more aggressive in renegotiating contracts that no longer make financial sense.

“We’ve changed our mindset over the course of the last four years,” he told Crain’s Detroit Business. “It’s very much bottom-line performance-based and not top-line growth. Unless we’re absolutely sure we can get a return on our investment, we don’t really measure performance in terms of market share I think like we historically had.”

Dorlack also joined Adient in 2018 after working at Aptiv as senior vice president, president of electrical distribution systems and president of South America operations.

“Looking ahead, Jerome has a proven track record of success at Adient, having successfully led our Americas operations and served as CFO,” Del Grosso said. “He is the ideal leader to continue Adient’s long-term success.”

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