Scott EmpringhamAI Marketing Strategist | Helping CEOs Scale with AI

SOMEBODY BELIEVED IN YOU FIRST 🔥 #ford #cadillac #automotiveindustry

28 May 2026 · 0 min

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In this interview segment, the interviewee recounts his early career at Cadillac during the early‑to‑mid 1980s, a period marked by severe quality problems with several power‑train models (the HC4100 diesel, the 864, and a V6). He describes how the brand was losing ground to emerging European luxury competitors such as Mercedes, BMW, and Audi. The turning point in his professional development came when Pete Gerosa (also referred to as Pete Chiarosa), the newly appointed General Sales Manager from Oldsmobile, took a personal interest in younger staff. Gerosa mentored the interviewee, offering marketing insight, dealer‑relations expertise, and the freedom to make mistakes and learn. The interviewee credits Gerosa’s belief in him as a pivotal influence that shaped his career trajectory and personal confidence.

—was having a lot of problems, a lot of quality problems at the HC4100 engine.
Who was one of those most pivotal person in early in your career that was like, man, that shaped the way I'm going to approach my career and maybe my life?
It was a guy named Pete Gerosa. So I'm coming up the ranks at Cadillac, a young guy, and Cadillac was very kind of traditional organization. This is 1980s, was having a lot of problems, a lot of quality problems at the HC4100 engine. When I hired in '81 answering complaints, we had a diesel engine that blew every head gasket, we had an 864 engine that stalled out at speed on the highway, we had a V6 that shook so bad I had a customer call me and said it shook the dentures out of their teeth. I swear to God. And the brand was kind of in decline, and Mercedes, BMW, Audi were just kind of entering the market and giving customers an alternative beside Cadillac and Lincoln. And So I'm, you know, working my way up in the field, and younger guys did not get promoted early at Cadillac at the time. And then Pete Chiarosa comes in as the general sales manager in like 1986 or '87, and, and he was head of, uh, he came from Oldsmobile, so he came from outside, and he was a young guy. He was in his mid-40s, I think. I was in my mid-20s, and he took a real interest in some of the younger people of the company, and me in particular. He was my mentor, and at that time the general sales manager had marketing reporting do it. He believed in me, gave me a lot of— he— there's always somebody that believes in you before you believe in yourself, or sees what you can do before you can see what you can do. He was, uh, he was the mentor that gave me the guiding hand. And now, did he give it a ton of marketing advice? He had great instincts for it. Wasn't dealer relations and sales were kind of his thing, but, but he knew good when he saw it. And he gave me really a lot of independence to kind of make mistakes and learn and break things. And he likes to remind me, because he goes, hey kid, you'd be flipping burgers if it wasn't for me. So You know, very— and he's probably right, so I'm very grateful.
I love that.