Chrysler's commitment to innovation has produced a long and rich heritage of industry-first products and technologies ranging from the first replaceable oil filter, first four-wheel hydraulic brakes, the HEMI engine, the minivan, to UConnect web - the connectivity breakthrough that turns vehicles into mobile Internet hot spots. 

Reinforcing the company’s leadership in innovation and instilling the voice of the customer in everything we do is vital to our continued success. To this end, the company announces the establishment of the Chrysler Innovation Council. 

The Innovation Council will serve as a laboratory and evaluative sounding board and champion decisions for identifying, exploring and prioritizing Chrysler’s product innovation strategies and advance feature plans.

The Council will direct the feature innovation process to achieve the following:

• Alignment of customer priorities in the features innovation process

• Linkage of customer requirements and segment opportunities earlier
  in the ideation process

• Further integration of the Chief Innovation Officer in the product/design  development process

The Innovation Council (Strategy) and PAC (Execution) will replace Dome Reviews as part of the product meeting structure, and will meet at least six times per year. Under my leadership as Executive Sponsor, the Innovation Council will be co-chaired by the following: 

• Peter Arnell, Chief Innovation Officer, who will establish principles, culture and methodology to drive product innovation strategies across the enterprise

• Roger Monforton, VP – Product Technology Strategy, who will operationalize the approaches to innovation and coordinate the feature innovation process from concept to approval