Stellantis Announces Their Executive Team To Lead New Company:

Yesterday, Stellantis finally pulled the covers off of its newly realigned global executive team. Integrating the key players that helped make the former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot S.A. (PSA) successful, Stellantis believes that the new executive team will help to push the company forward. 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Carlos Tavares

Strategic and Performance:

• Head of Americas: Mike Manley*
• Global Corporate Office: Silvia Vernetti*
• Chief Performance Officer: Emmanuel Delay
• Chief Software Officer: Yves Bonnefont
• Chief Affiliates Officer: Philippe de Rovira (Sales Finance, Used Cars, Parts & Service, Retail Network)

Region Chief Operating Officers:

• Enlarged Europe: Maxime Picat
  • Deputy: Davide Mele*
  • Eurasia: Xavier Duchemin
• North America: Mark Stewart*
• South America: Antonio Filosa*
• Middle East and Africa: Samir Cherfan
• China: Grégoire Olivier (Interim, in charge of Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile)
• India and Asia Pacific: Carl Smiley*
  • Asean: Christophe Musy

Brand Chief Executive Officers
Global SUV:

• Jeep®: Christian Meunier, Synergies Referent*

American Brands:

• Chrysler: Timothy Kuniskis, Interim*
• Dodge: Timothy Kuniskis, Synergies Referent*
• Ram: Mike Koval*

Core:

• Citroën: Vincent Cobee
• Fiat and Abarth: Olivier Francois, Synergies Referent and Global Chief Marketing Officer*

Upper Mainstream:

• Opel and Vauxhall: Michael Lohscheller
• Peugeot: Linda Jackson, Synergies Referent

Premium:

• Alfa Romeo: Jean-Philippe Imparato, Synergies Referent
• DS: Béatrice Foucher
• Lancia: Luca Napolitano*

Luxury:

• Maserati: Davide Grasso*

Mobility:

• Free2Move: Brigitte Courtehoux
• Leasys: Giacomo Carelli*

Global Function Chief Officers:

• Finance: Richard Palmer*
• Human Resources and Transformation: Xavier Chereau
• General Counsel: Giorgio Fossati*
• Planning: Olivier Bourges
• Purchasing and Supply Chain: Michelle Wen
• Manufacturing: Arnaud Deboeuf
• Design:
  • Ralph Gilles (Chrysler / Dodge / Jeep / Ram / Maserati / FIAT Latin America)*
  • Jean-Pierre Ploue (Abarth / Alfa Romeo / Citroën / DS / FIAT Europe / Lancia/ Opel / Peugeot / Vauxhall)
• Engineering: Harald Wester*
  • Deputy: Patrice Lucas – Cross Car Line and Project Engineering
  • Deputy: Nicolas Morel
• CTO: (TBA)
• Sales and Marketing: Thierry Koskas
• Customer Experience: Richard Schwarzwald*
  • Deputy: Jean-Christophe Quemard
• Communication and CSR: Bertrand Blaise

* Indicates if the person came from FCA

As we reported last month, FCA’s former CEO Mike Manley will be overseeing the Americas (the biggest market in volume, globally) for Stellantis. Manley, has experience in running overall operations for a region, as he not only served as CEO for the Jeep and Ram Truck brands but also served as the COO for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Mark Stewart will continue his role as the region COO for the North American market. Stewart came to FCA in 2018, after serving as Amazon’s Vice President of Operations, overseeing customer fulfillment across 200 facilities with 180,000 employees. He led teams focusing on advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation methods. Mark also had a significant amount of automotive experience before going to FCA, serving as the COO of automotive components supplier ZF TRW.

Christian Meunier will also continue leading the Jeep brand under the Stellantis banner. Meunier came to the Jeep brand in May 2019, with a vast background in the automotive industry. He served as Chairman and Global President for Infiniti Motor Company Limited at Nissan before joining FCA.

Tim Kuniskis also returns to lead the Chrysler and Dodge brands for Stellantis, which should please a lot of diehard Mopar fans out there. Kuniskis head the Chrysler, Dodge, SRT, and FIAT North America brands for much of the past seven years and had his hand in operating functions of the Jeep brand, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and FCA’s fleet operations as well.

Mike Koval will continue to oversee the Ram brand, a position which he has held since June 2020. He served as Ram’s U.S. Head of Product Marketing since 2019 and was Head of Ram Brand Operations before that. Koval will continue to lead one of the most successful brands in the Stellantis portfolio.

Olivier Francois, will resume leading both the FIAT and Abarth brands, globally. Francois will also continue his position of Global Chief Marketing Officer for the new Stellantis idenitity. Olivier originally started his automotive carrer with the Citroën brand in 1990 and quickly climbed the ranks within the organization. But the end of the decade he was appointed Managing Director of Citroën Italy. In 2005, he was approached by the late Sergio Marchionne to become the CEO of the Lancia brand.

After FIAT took operating control over the Chrysler Group, Francois was tapped to lead the Chrysler brand. It was then he launched the successful rebirth campaign of the Chrysler Sebring as the Chrysler 200 Series and combined the portfolio of Chrysler with Lancia, to sell the Chrysler 200 and 300 overseas as Lancia models. Since 2011, he has been the Global Head of the FIAT brand.

Since 2015, Luca Napolitano has lead the Lancia brand and will continue doing so for Stellantis. While he has held the top position for the FIAT and Abarth brands in the EMEA region during the same time, those positions have been moved over to Olivier Francois. Napolitano, has also been an important part of FCA’s EMEA success by holding positions as Head of Fleet Operations for EMEA, Head of EMEA FCA Commerical Operations, and the Managing Director of Fiat Italy.

Davide Grasso, a former CEO of NIKE’s Converse line, joined FCA last year. He took over as the COO of the Maserati brand and will retain his position within the Stellantis organization. While at Converse, Grasso engineered that iconic brand for long-term sustainable growth.

His previous experience includes a string of successes at NIKE, where he served in numerous leadership positions, including Chief Marketing Officer for the Nike brand. He is currently leading a renassiance at the premium Italian brand, which is in the process of current relaunching its entire lineup.

Richard Palmer was FCA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head of Business Development. In his current role, Palmer is responsible for all financial activities of Stellantis including control, treasury, and tax.

Since 2015, Ralph Gilles had led the FCA Global Design team. Gilles who has worked under the Chrysler umbrella since 1992, led the design direction of the Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, FIAT, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, and Ram brands will now split the Stellantis portfolio with Jean-Pierre Ploue who lead PSA’s design team. Instead of working on the original FCA brands, the Abarth, Alfa Romeo, FIAT Europe, and Lancia brands will be under the control of Ploue. This means Gilles will focus on the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, FIAT Latin America, and the Maserati brands.

Harald Wester will continue to oversee Engineering for the new Stellantis group. Wester was named Executive Chairman of Maserati and his role of FCA’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO) was expanded to include global powertrain along with global vehicle engineering in July 2019.