Slate Hires New CEO Peter Faricy. Ex-CEO Chris Barman appointed new role

[Letas]

CEOs don't get forced out of their roles as a reward for high performance. The only example of a CEO getting forced out being the "wrong" decision that comes to mind is Steve Jobs in the 80s.

Startups are often founded by builders who are good at building, who then realize they are good at building "things" not companies. Then a suit comes in who can build the company. This is the natural life cycle and not a concern on it's own, in my opinion.


Where it becomes concerning to me, is the decision coming so close to launch. Clearly some gears were not turning well if they would make such a large change at this point. Not to mention the weird "split org" it appears they are doing? Who has the final say? There will be conflict between orgs- at the end of the day it all needs to funnel to one decision maker.

 

[FC49er]

Nothing is “cynical” everything is alleged at this point



QUOTE="AZFox, post: 216785, member: 8704"]
I think the optics are pretty good, folks.

Faricy will do a good job increasing confidence in the company's likelihood for success up to and beyond what @FC49er is cynically calling the "alleged release".

It's hard to beat putting the Amazon Marketplace guy in charge of your logistics, and for Slate Auto logistics are a thing. Same with legal. Probably finance too.

Chris Barman's passion seems to be developing vehicles. She and her scrappy team of engineers, designers, and production people will work wonders doing what they do best.

If Slate Automotive were a truck they just got another motor and AWD.
[/QUOTE]

I think the optics are pretty good, folks.

Faricy will do a good job increasing confidence in the company's likelihood for success up to and beyond what @FC49er is cynically calling the "alleged release".

It's hard to beat putting the Amazon Marketplace guy in charge of your logistics, and for Slate Auto logistics are a thing. Same with legal. Probably finance too.

Chris Barman's passion seems to be developing vehicles. She and her scrappy team of engineers, designers, and production people will work wonders doing what they do best.

If Slate Automotive were a truck they just got another motor and AWD.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

Ehh. One of the things that gave me confidence in Slate was that the investors were relatively hands-off. Now the Amazon people are showing up. We'll see how that goes.

Finally, someone who understands the value of data collection and automobiles as a service - they help create an active personal relationship with customers, etc.!

He’s not really “Amazon people” the media is just using that because he was the VP of Amazon and Amazon has the best SEO. But he hasn’t worked at Amazon since 2018. More recent and relevant roles is being CEO of SunPower (which had a deal at one point with GM) and Discovery Inc. He was also the Executive Director at Ford so he has plenty of experience as a CEO and experience in the Automotive Industry.

 

[KevinRS]

She went from being in charge of a small company developing a vehicle, to being in charge of developing and building the vehicle at a medium-large company. This may have been the planned path all along. She didn't start the company, she was hired to take charge of developing the vehicle. The only roles she is dropping will be on the financial and large scale side, as those development and build-out jobs she was hired for become more intense.
I don't see it as a red flag at all. If she was leaving the company then yes it would be.

 

[cadblu]

As transition to production is nearing, it was inevitable that Slate needed to have Chris remain laser focused on day to day operations at ground zero. This is where she excels.

Now they recognized the business need to have someone locked in at the 30,000 foot level. Peter fits that role perfectly.

Cannot have the same person perform well at “altitude” and in the “weeds” at the same time.

 

[Pilau]

I think Chris Barman was in a little over her head.

Now she's able to concentrate on what she's most qualified to do. She has opportunity to flourish in her new role.

Peter Faricy doesn't need to know about automotive engineering. His skills are business skills.

From the profile page @SparkYellow linked:

Faricy also acts as an Operating Advisor at Bessemer Venture Partners, helping portfolio companies accelerate growth, improve go-to-market execution, and optimize leadership effectiveness.​

I went to business school with Peter many moons ago. He's got a big brain. Since then, he's had 30+ years of experience solving very complex problems. I'm stoked to have him as the new Slate CEO, and to have Chris continuing to deliver on the manufacturing side.

 

[Johnologue]

He’s not really “Amazon people” the media is just using that because he was the VP of Amazon and Amazon has the best SEO. But he hasn’t worked at Amazon since 2018. More recent and relevant roles is being CEO of SunPower (which had a deal at one point with GM) and Discovery Inc. He was also the Executive Director at Ford so he has plenty of experience as a CEO and experience in the Automotive Industry.

I feel like I can raise concerns about most of the companies on his record, but I do lack some context. Like some particular "era of Ford" where they were trying to "regain profitability"? Way before my time, but doesn't sound great.

I skimmed Wikipedia around "Jacques Nasser" and didn't particularly like what I found, like the "fire the lowest-performing 10%" (that's Jack Welsh's Vitality Curve!), and making profitability by pivoting into connected services.

But I don't know the degree of Faricy's involvement and sounds fairly "of the times".
SunPower went under, but I still can't really say how that reflects on him.

And the one from the article you didn't mention, being on the board for Blue Apron, one of those meal kit subscription companies that does YouTube sponsorships. Every company that does YouTube sponsorships seems to turn out really sketchy.

I'm worried he's going to bring in the "as a service", recurring revenue through subscriptions, "be a technology company instead of a car company" type thinking, and just send everything back in the direction that legacy automakers took.

I personally do believe that social, managerial, and business-leadership skills are valuable; I just also believe that the people and ideas common in those leadership positions haven't been providing that value.
I would have trusted the awkward technical people more than a business school guy.

 

[E90400K]

CEOs don't get forced out of their roles as a reward for high performance. The only example of a CEO getting forced out being the "wrong" decision that comes to mind is Steve Jobs in the 80s.

Startups are often founded by builders who are good at building, who then realize they are good at building "things" not companies. Then a suit comes in who can build the company. This is the natural life cycle and not a concern on it's own, in my opinion.


Where it becomes concerning to me, is the decision coming so close to launch. Clearly some gears were not turning well if they would make such a large change at this point. Not to mention the weird "split org" it appears they are doing? Who has the final say? There will be conflict between orgs- at the end of the day it all needs to funnel to one decision maker.

I think it will have a significant effect on team morale.

 

[AZFox]

I'm worried he's going to bring in the "as a service", recurring revenue through subscriptions, "be a technology company instead of a car company" type thinking, and just send everything back in the direction that legacy automakers took.

Like I wrote previously, that would be a helluva switch-a-roo.

I don't think it's likely.

At the launch event Chris Barman something like "We looked a what the industry was doing and did the opposite." That's been their ethos from the beginning.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

I feel like I can raise concerns about most of the companies on his record, but I do lack some context. Like some particular "era of Ford" where they were trying to "regain profitability"? Way before my time, but doesn't sound great.

I skimmed Wikipedia around "Jacques Nasser" and didn't particularly like what I found, like the "fire the lowest-performing 10%" (that's Jack Welsh's Vitality Curve!), and making profitability by pivoting into connected services.

But I don't know the degree of Faricy's involvement and sounds fairly "of the times".
SunPower went under, but I still can't really say how that reflects on him.

And the one from the article you didn't mention, being on the board for Blue Apron, one of those meal kit subscription companies that does YouTube sponsorships. Every company that does YouTube sponsorships seems to turn out really sketchy.

I'm worried he's going to bring in the "as a service", recurring revenue through subscriptions, "be a technology company instead of a car company" type thinking, and just send everything back in the direction that legacy automakers took.

I personally do believe that social, managerial, and business-leadership skills are valuable; I just also believe that the people and ideas common in those leadership positions haven't been providing that value.
I would have trusted the awkward technical people more than a business school guy.

I don’t think that will happen for the Truck since the fact is Slate Auto was started by two billionaires who wanted two things a simple affordable truck like there used to be and for it be made in the America since they want to bring manufacturing back to the US. The core mission and identity of the Truck isn’t going to change because of a change in leadership.

But the biggest misconception people have about the Slate it is tech focused it’s just optional as an app on your phone. So fear that they could add a subscription model to the phone is possible but no reason to worry about that too much at this point. We know very little about the app at this point and I honestly believe all the most basic and most important functions will be free and available on day 1. If not everything free in general. They already have a highly profitable model on accessories I don’t think they will make a decision of adding a subscription to the app which would be very unpopular for a young brand like Slate.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

I see that position of logistics, legal, marketing as reporting to the CEO, not being the CEO. I liked that Slate was being run by a car geek engineer at the helm. That's what made it different.

The Dude's a Suit...

"I love working on cars, and I love cars, but that's not my job anymore. People think, "Oh, you're like Bob Lutz." I'm actually not like that [head product role]. I'm quite different than that... And all I really care about is fixing our quality and our safety and our cost, and making it a safe place to work in all definitions of safety, and to have a great future and a great business, so we could do more social good as well, like my grandfather, but also return lots of rewards to our shareholders."-Ford CEO Jim Farely

Toyota also recently changed their ceo from a car guy to a finance guy.

The fact is some times a car geek being at the helm is not the best person for the Job. Chris is still with the company and her role is basically making Slate the most affordable freaking awesome little truck it can be. It seems like Slate's founders believe what they need right now is a suit. For example Slate co-founder William Barker told Newsweek that "as we enter the next phase, with customers soon able to customize, order and buy their Slate, this is exactly the right moment for Peter [Faricy] to join. He is a pioneer of marketplace businesses and a highly strategic leader." I hope to see continue to do great work at Slate and work her way back into the CEO role if she wants it back one day. But if she's not the right fit to see Slate launch on time and be successful than the founders made the right choice here.

 

[Mac-Tyson]

I think it will have a significant effect on team morale.

Slightly like Slate up to this point was basically a small startup that was the company culture so I'm sure they all got very close to Chris. But Chris is still there doing likely 90% of the things she was doing before. So that won't imact their morale too much because of that. Chris's morale if she in her heart doesn't agree with the decision could be impacted by it since while she's still a very high ranking executive much higher ranked than she ever was with Chrysler, she's no longer a c-suite executive. If in her heart she didn't believe she was the right person for the expanded role that was going to be required that could hurt her morale personally. The rest of the team are going to get to know the new ceo and the new ceo is going to get to know them. Everyone's jobs until production are likely safe but if someone that was working from day 1 is no longer a good fit he will also be less biased and see that quicker. But again overall this likely blindsided the team but team morale likely isn't down.

 

[E90400K]

"I love working on cars, and I love cars, but that's not my job anymore. People think, "Oh, you're like Bob Lutz." I'm actually not like that [head product role]. I'm quite different than that... And all I really care about is fixing our quality and our safety and our cost, and making it a safe place to work in all definitions of safety, and to have a great future and a great business, so we could do more social good as well, like my grandfather, but also return lots of rewards to our shareholders."-Ford CEO Jim Farely

Toyota also recently changed their ceo from a car guy to a finance guy.

The fact is some times a car geek being at the helm is not the best person for the Job. Chris is still with the company and her role is basically making Slate the most affordable freaking awesome little truck it can be. It seems like Slate's founders believe what they need right now is a suit. For example Slate co-founder William Barker told Newsweek that "as we enter the next phase, with customers soon able to customize, order and buy their Slate, this is exactly the right moment for Peter [Faricy] to join. He is a pioneer of marketplace businesses and a highly strategic leader." I hope to see continue to do great work at Slate and work her way back into the CEO role if she wants it back one day. But if she's not the right fit to see Slate launch on time and be successful than the founders made the right choice here.

That's been the business plan since day one. Barman has been the Slate CEO since day one. The team under Barman's leadership has been in pursuit of implementing a unique vehicle to meet that plan since day one. That's been the mission since day one. Barman was the face of the franchise.

To make a change at the top position of the company at this critical stage is a tell tale sign things at Slate are not going to plan.

To make it sound like Faricy is coming in to move Slate into the next phase of executing the business plan/mission statement is simply spin.

 

[Luxrage]

To make a change at the top position of the company at this critical stage is a tell tale sign things at Slate are not going to plan.

Their jobs posting page still shows 107 open positions, so I can believe they are sorely behind on their buildout of the factory and would absolutely push a change at the top.

Edit: A lot of these jobs are less than 30 days old so they're at least still opening more and more positions but a ton of the real early ones are still open.

 

[bloo]

This makes me nervous. Let the enshitification begin.

Additional article for reference:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/09/slate-auto-changes-ceo-months-ahead-of-affordable-ev-launch/

The Jay Leno bump wasn't the hit investors were hoping for. That's what drove the demotion of Barman.

I fear feature creep is coming - features we don't want. All the new intrusive crap will be spun as a means to make the truck less expensive.

Expect a retreat from the open-source promises Slate teased us with. Open arcitecture doesn't fit the Amazon way. Just look at Kindle and Audible to understand what I mean.

Among other things, Farias is going to be responsible for the "digital" and "information technology" divisions. Where do you think some of that digital and IT stuff is going to go?