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As The Globe and Mail's roving European business correspondent, Eric Reguly has covered the downfall of the oligarchs in Moscow, a raft of G8 and G20 summits during the financial crisis, the near-collapse of the Irish economy, the world food crisis and the odd foray by Barrick Gold chairman Peter Munk and his Russian sidekick, Oleg Deripaska, into Montenegro. His home base in Rome has given him an especially good vantage point from which to observe Sergio Marchionne as the Italian-Canadian CEO put the finishing touches on Fiat's revival, then as he consummated the deal to take control of hapless Chrysler.

Reguly first met Marchionne two years ago. Our writer was visiting Canada's then-ambassador to Italy, Alex Himelfarb, when he caught wind that the chief executive would also be meeting the diplomat that day. Reguly, of course, finagled an introduction. The man he met was nothing like what he'd expected. For starters, he wasn't wearing a suit. "He looked like he was on holiday," Reguly recalls. "Do you mind if I smoke?" Marchionne asked, hauling out his trademark Muratti cigarettes.

Reguly found him to be immediately likeable, refreshing even: "There was no stiffness, no formalities. He didn't launch into a speech about Fiat or his career. In Canada and the U.S., executives-I must have interviewed thousands over the last 25 years-almost always stiffen up when a journalist is in the room. They go into corporate mode and start talking as if they're reciting the chairman's letter in the company's annual report."

The two chatted about Italy's perennially farcical political landscape. "Like all Italians, he knows politics is absurd," says Reguly, "entertainment at best, a criminal conspiracy at worst." And they talked about his Canadian background, his passion for Ferraris, and about the new Fiat 500, the egg-shaped little runabout that was about to launch in Europe and would go on to be a sensation. In 2007, of course, auto sales were on a roll, and Marchionne had no idea he was about to become Chrysler's white knight.

Will Marchionne save Chrysler? Most industry analysts, auto execs and consultants are skeptical-Chrysler is too far gone, they say, a smoking wreck of a company that even mighty Daimler couldn't fix. "But I think if anyone can do it, Marchionne can," says Reguly. "He fixed Fiat, another write-off before he arrived. He knows that if the products are right, the profits will follow. He drives his team relentlessly. And he's a workaholic." And, as he demonstrated with his move on Chrysler, our CEO of the Year has the stomach to make tough calls.