In January, Jean-Pierre Ploué, formerly head of PSA Group global design, became one of the two Chief Design Officers of Stellantis, the company born out of the merger with FCA. Ploué is in charge of all European brands with the exception of Maserati, while his colleague Ralph Gilles heads up the design function for all the American brands plus Maserati and Fiat Latin America. Since then people have been wondering what revolutions or renewals we would be seeing in the design structure of the new French-Italian group.
While the ex-PSA brand’s design chiefs have all been confirmed – Pierre Leclercq for Citroën, Thierry Metroz for DS, Mark Adams for Opel and Matthias Hossan for Peugeot – the reorganisation is not yet complete on the Italian side. This week it has been announced internally that Jean-Pierre Ploué will head Lancia design, a brand Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has said he wants to invest in its relaunch. Moreover, Ploué will also be head of design for the group’s light commercial vehicles division.
We need to wait till June to find out who will be in charge of Fiat Abarth Europe design, while the announcement of Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos as the new head of Alfa Romeo design is expected in July.
The European structure headed by Ploué has also appointed Enrico Gobetto (formerly FCA) as head of Design Operation and these former PSA executives:
– Christophe Rondeau for Budget & Planning
– Virginie Leprince-Mazurier for Design Quality
– Bertrand Dantec for Advanded Design Operations
– Mathieu Riou Chapman for Global Brand Design.
Klaus Busse, former Design Vice President for FCA’s European brands, is now in charge of Stellantis Design Studio.
