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Carlos hires New Alfa Design Chief: Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos

AlexB

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Spanish executive Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos will be Alfa Romeo's new design chief, sources said, as the troubled brand heads for a turnaround under its new owner, Stellantis.
Mesonero will join Alfa's design team based in Turin in July, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe.

Mesonero, 53, will replace Daniele Calonaci, who will continue to lead Jeep design for Stellantis in Europe.
Stellantis was formed in January by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group.
Mesonero quit as design boss at Renault's Dacia budget brand earlier this month after just six months in the post. He had been recruited to Renault by CEO Luca de Meo. He had worked under de Meo at Seat, Volkswagen Group's Spanish brand.

Mesonero's appointment to Alfa was first reported by Auto & Design magazine.

Mesonero strengthens the top management team that new Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato is putting together to try to reverse the declining fortunes of the sporty premium brand.
 

AlexB

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Carlos hates Renault :D.....takes executives and FCA away.
 

Tony K

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Kinda hard to blame a guy for going from Dacia to Alfa Romeo.
Carlos hates Renault :D.....takes executives and FCA away.
That is funny. Yet, it's a reality that poaching happens in the business world as a matter of course. But, after less than a year does give one pause. Just hope he's not so ready to jump at the next offer.
 

Bili

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I don't see issue with Alfa's design. No need to poach Spanish guy. Actually I'm worried with Alfa's design being under the French guy, Ploue. Interesting that Maserati's design has stayed in Gilles' orbit.
 

pumadog

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I think that top management decision was about American market focus for Maserati. Both brands are still designed in Turin under leadership by Klaus Busse.

Nice to see all the manpower for Alfa coming together!
 

Bili

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I think that top management decision was about American market focus for Maserati. Both brands are still designed in Turin under leadership by Klaus Busse.

Nice to see all the manpower for Alfa coming together!

I'm scared of French overdesigning of cars and non usable interiors.

This is managerial role. Based on the text above I would assume that American Scott Krugger had left Alfa Romeo Head of Design position. He came during 2015 when Giulia and Stelvio design was already done. He was there for Tonale concept in early 2019. He replaced Marco Tencone who at the time was both Alfa Romeo and Maserati Head of design. Marco kept his Maserati role.

I don't know what else has changed at the brand level but all of this positions are managerial.

At the time of Giulia and Stelvio it went from Lorenzo Ramaciotti who was Head of Design for FCA to Alfa Romeo Head of Design Marco Tencone. Bellow Tencone there were Heaf of Interior and Head of Exterior design. Head of Interior design was Alessandro Maccolini. AFAIK he is at this role to this day.
Then with Ramaciotti's retirement Ralph Gilles took the place of FCA Head of Design. He sent Klaus Busse to oversee European brand design. Actually previously Gillis held the very same role for American part of the group. Scott Krugger was back then Alfa Romeo Head of Design and he came from US together with Busse. Busse at the time did interior design rationalisation and all European FCA brands since then have a joint Head of Interior Design in Andreas Wuppinger who was selected by Busse but he is ex-Fiat guy. Actually this guy was responsible for 2007 Fiat 500 exterior design.

Sometimes design are a lot of about managers, about people who were designers, very successful designers, but people who are today more managers than designers.

I'm sure that French will do some additional changes. As we see they are now pulling the strings. They are pushing with their own managers.
 

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I'm scared of French overdesigning of cars and non usable interiors.

This is managerial role. Based on the text above I would assume that American Scott Krugger had left Alfa Romeo Head of Design position. He came during 2015 when Giulia and Stelvio design was already done. He was there for Tonale concept in early 2019. He replaced Marco Tencone who at the time was both Alfa Romeo and Maserati Head of design. Marco kept his Maserati role.

I don't know what else has changed at the brand level but all of this positions are managerial.

At the time of Giulia and Stelvio it went from Lorenzo Ramaciotti who was Head of Design for FCA to Alfa Romeo Head of Design Marco Tencone. Bellow Tencone there were Heaf of Interior and Head of Exterior design. Head of Interior design was Alessandro Maccolini. AFAIK he is at this role to this day.
Then with Ramaciotti's retirement Ralph Gilles took the place of FCA Head of Design. He sent Klaus Busse to oversee European brand design. Actually previously Gillis held the very same role for American part of the group. Scott Krugger was back then Alfa Romeo Head of Design and he came from US together with Busse. Busse at the time did interior design rationalisation and all European FCA brands since then have a joint Head of Interior Design in Andreas Wuppinger who was selected by Busse but he is ex-Fiat guy. Actually this guy was responsible for 2007 Fiat 500 exterior design.

Sometimes design are a lot of about managers, about people who were designers, very successful designers, but people who are today more managers than designers.

I'm sure that French will do some additional changes. As we see they are now pulling the strings. They are pushing with their own managers.
Krugger is now the head Designer of Dodge & Chrysler design.
 

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Can he adjust to Alfa or will he push the Renault language on something that is already widely thought of as some of the best looking vehicles on the market?
 

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Krugger is now the head Designer of Dodge & Chrysler design.

He is at this position for the last 15 months. I'm sure that Chrysler will get their own Head of Design.

But in parallel through January 2021 he was also Head of Alfa Romeo Design. So this Mesonero thing came at that time but obviously he is at garden leave at Dacia. And I'm not afraid of Mesonero. Ploue is the one who scares me.

Can he adjust to Alfa or will he push the Renault language on something that is already widely thought of as some of the best looking vehicles on the market?

Seat, he was at Seat. He did nothing at Dacia, he was very shortly there.

If you ask me Seat was the most handsome out of all VAG cars during Mesonero's tenure.

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AlexB

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He is at this position for the last 15 months. I'm sure that Chrysler will get their own Head of Design.

But in parallel through January 2021 he was also Head of Alfa Romeo Design. So this Mesonero thing came at that time but obviously he is at garden leave at Dacia. And I'm not afraid of Mesonero. Ploue is the one who scares me.



Seat, he was at Seat. He did nothing at Dacia, he was very shortly there.

If you ask me Seat was the most handsome out of all VAG cars during Mesonero's tenure.

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Renault & PSA rivalry seems deeper than I estimated.
Isn’t Alfa design theme too “locked in” to be changed for the upcoming models?
 

Bili

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Isn’t Alfa design theme too “locked in” to be changed for the upcoming models?
It should be locked.

BTW. I like how FCA envisioned Alfa's exterior design at one time. Different segments, different design language, Alfa has rich history for design ideas.

PSA and Renault? Actually I'm pretty much sure that PSA had schemed against FCA-Renault marriage. Just remember what Tavares said at the time. And I still think that Renault with an eye on Nissan way by far better solution.
 

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I don't see issue with Alfa's design. No need to poach Spanish guy. Actually I'm worried with Alfa's design being under the French guy, Ploue. Interesting that Maserati's design has stayed in Gilles' orbit.

I don't understand why they wouldn't just turn it over to Klaus Busse. He has been running the FCA Europe design team for Gilles for awhile. Klaus is a great designer, came to Chrysler from Mercedes and stayed and helped revamp the FCA design studios in both North America and Europe to what they are today.



 

pumadog

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Hmm? Klaus Busse will be the boss of Mesonero-Romanos, as Klaus continues to lead the whole Centro Stile in Turin. I like to follow his Instagram, his more private posts are quite Alfa biased.

I do agree that Seat/Cupra is the best looking VAG mass market brand. But the freedom for production models seems to be very limited, the general design of VW-Skoda-Seat is similar, apart from some extra angles for Seat. Stellantis should use the opposite design philosophies of Paris and Turin for differentiation of the European brands.
 

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