Chinnock blows in as New CEO Ducati North America

Ducati North America just announced a new CEO is moving in. Jason Chinnock takes over pole at Ducati North America from Dominique Cheraki.

Chinnock is 'coming back' to Ducati after heading up marketing at Lamborghini America for 3 years. He will be taking over the Americas including US, Canada and Mexico. Looking at Chinnock's pic on LinkedIn, I'd say he's a Monster 1200S kind-of-guy but maybe this is the CEO who execute the Scrambler stand-alone brand in the Americas. We shall wait and see.

Meanwhile, Ducati North America’s former CFO, Andy Williams, left the company several weeks ago. Williams has taken a finance position at helmet startup Skully, thus adding to the personnel shakeup currently underway at DNA. Via AsphaltAndRubber

Out going CEO, Dominique Cheraki has been at the helm of DNA for the past five years. He's spent more than 18 years in Ducati holding positions of increasing importance, first in Ducati France then in Ducati West Europe before heading up DNA.

Cheraki on the Diavel

Earlier this spring, Cheraki joined a myself and a bunch of journalists over lunch at Alice’s Restaurant. He rode up on a Scrambler which surprised everyone. Here's a short expert from my 2015 Ducati Line Up review...

I had the opportunity to speak Cheraki about the Diavel. Rumour has it that before the Diavel was available in dealerships, Cheraki could be spotted cruising the twisty SoCal backroads on the Diavel with one of his kids on the back, inconspicuously overtaking sportbike riders.

What does it mean for the US motorcycle market when an Italian bike is recognized as the ‘Best Cruiser’ two years in a row? I asked. "It was an unexpected achievement" Cheraki confided.

“I was wrong in the beginning about the Diavel” says Dominique. Actually, the machine sparked a significant amount of controversy within Ducati. The lead time to develop a bike like the Diavel is three to four years and during that product development, Cheraki told me the company was divided. Right from the first sketches in 2007 and even at the mockup stage, Cheraki said “no way; we can’t sell that… maybe in the US we’ll sell a few but no where else”. At the last stage of the development, when insiders could see the frame and engine performance coming together did nay-sayers start to come around.

“Only after the first time we had the chance to ride the bike, we understood that yes! okay, they got it right." He explained, "they got it right because it’s a different Ducati but it retains the Ducati DNA with the engine, the power, the electronics and the safety features.” At the time of the Diavel launch, Cheraki was in charge of France. “I planned to sell 100 bikes in the first year, that’s it. Then when I tested the bike for the first time 18 months before the launch, I raised my forecast to 300 bikes. In the first year, in France alone, Ducati sold 1,000 Diavels.

If you missed it, here's my review of the Ducati 2015 lineup

And... I only dropped the Diavel.

Share your speculations and insider info in the comments.