Stellantis confirmed Thursday that CEO Carlos Tavares will retire at the end of his current contract.
After reports circulated that Stellantis chairman John Elkann was searching for a new chief executive to replace Carlos Tavares, the company confirmed the rumors this week as it also announced several other leadership changes taking effect immediately.
“To drive simplification and enhance organizational performance in a turbulent global environment,” the Amsterdam-based automaker said in its official statement, “Stellantis today announced targeted management changes, effective immediately, under CEO Carlos Tavares to redouble the Company’s focus on its key business priorities and confront head-on the global challenges facing the industry.” It continued after announcing key management changes that, “The Company also confirmed that the formal process to identify a successor to Carlos Tavares, when he retires at the conclusion of his CEO term in early 2026 is already under way (emphasis added).”
A special committee is currently operating to determine Tavares’ replacement, and we should expect to hear an announcement of who it will be after it concludes that process by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Carlos Tavares became the CEO of Stellantis in 2021, after the company was created as a result of the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Groupe PSA (Peugeot Group). Before that, he headed up Groupe PSA since 2014, wherein he made key moves like spinning off the DS luxury brand from Citroen and overseeing the acquisition of the Opel and Vauxhall brands from General Motors in 2017.
Several other leadership changes are taking effect, including Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa being promoted to North American chief operating officer. He will conduct the duties of that position on top of his role heading up Jeep. Filosa will succeed Carlos Zarlenga, though it’s unclear what Zarlenga’s new role will be until Stellantis makes another announcement down the line. Other key changes include Doug Ostermann as CFO and Santo Ficili becoming CEO of Maserati and Alfa Romeo. Jean Philippe Imparato will take on the role as chief operating officer of the “Enlarged Europe” region, in addition to his role as CEO of Stellantis’ commercial Pro One division, succeeding Uwe Hochgeschurtz, who is leaving the company.
Of all the changes, Tavares said as part of the company’s announcement confirming his own eventual retirement, “During this Darwinian period for the automotive industry, our duty and ethical responsibility is to adapt and prepare ourselves for the future, better and faster than our competitors to deliver clean safe and affordable mobility.”
The decision, effectively stacking multiple roles onto existing managers within Stellantis, comes at a time when the company’s sales are down nearly 20% year-to-date throughout 2024. Within the past few months, Tavares suggested that the company could jettison certain brands that were not turning a profit. That led to widespread speculation that long-standing brands like Chrysler or Maserati could see the ax (Maserati later said it’s not going anywhere), while even better-performing brands like Dodge, Jeep and Ram have all suffered hits to their sales volumes over the past few quarters.
