DaimlerChrysler Exec Reportedly Quitting : Autos: North American chief Thomas Stallkamp is expected to step down today amid management restructuring.

DETROIT — DaimlerChrysler is expected to announce the resignation of North American chief Thomas Stallkamp today as part of a management restructuring that has unnerved Wall Street and sent the company’s stock skidding to a record low.

The world’s No. 5 auto maker is scheduled to release the news early today, sources familiar with the situation said. A teleconference is also scheduled with co-Chairman Robert Eaton.

Stallkamp, the No. 2 American executive behind Eaton, has played a key role in melding the German and U.S. operations since the combination of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. was completed in November.

The DaimlerChrysler supervisory board is scheduled to meet in Frankfurt, Germany, today to review the plan to pare the management board from 17 to 13 members. It is the first major restructuring since the Stuttgart-based company was created last year in a $40-billion merger that ignited global consolidation in the auto industry.

Officials at DaimlerChrysler’s U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., have declined to comment all week on speculation about Stallkamp and reiterated that policy Thursday. Stallkamp, 53, canceled a meeting scheduled for today with reporters in Washington; he was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Investors drove DaimlerChrysler’s stock to a record low $65.31 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares closed at $66.25, down $3.94, and have declined 31% to date this year.

The expected departure of Stallkamp by year’s end is regarded as a bad sign by analysts because it means losing his valued expertise. He joined the former Chrysler Corp. in 1980.

In addition, analysts said, Stallkamp’s departure could hurt morale among U.S. employees, who already fear that their supposed “merger of equals” has amounted to a German takeover engineered by Juergen Schrempp, Daimler’s aggressive co-chairman. Several high-profile former Chrysler executives have already left the combined company.

Stallkamp, who was president of the former Chrysler Corp., was credited with pioneering a new system that involved suppliers earlier in the vehicle development process. The result was lower costs and improved relations.

Greg Kagay, an analyst with Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, said there are big opportunities in the combined DaimlerChrysler to cut costs using those same methods.

“It’s a mystery why, if that’s one of the key benefits of the merger, they would kill off the person who personified that benefit,” he said.

But analysts have other worries besides Stallkamp. Lehman Bros. on Thursday cut its earnings estimate and price targets for DaimlerChrysler because of rising sales incentives in North America, which contributes more than half of the auto maker’s total profit.

Many investors regard Stallkamp as “Chrysler’s single-most important executive,” Lehman Bros. analyst Nicholas Lobaccaro said in a research report.