PARIS (Reuters) – Stellantis’ board of directors has on its preliminary list two internal candidates, North America boss Antonio Filosa and purchasing director Maxime Picat, to succeed chief executive Carlos Tavares, whose resignation brutal was announced on Sunday, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

The source added that the board of directors would also study external applications, which are starting to reach it.

A Stellantis spokesperson declined to comment.

Carlos Tavares resigned abruptly in the face of growing disagreements that emerged in November with key shareholders over his methods for restoring the group’s financial and operational situation.

Investors and bankers familiar with the matter said Monday that directors were particularly concerned that the CEO would go through drastic cost cuts to turn things around in North America, rather than developing a longer-term strategy. term.

ANTONIO FILOSA, an Italian national, has been deputy general manager for North America, Stellantis’ strategic market, since October, when the group issued a spectacular “profit warning” due in particular to an increase in its stocks in the United States. United.

MAXIME PICAT is global director of purchasing and supplier quality, after having managed the extended Europe region. At 50, this French engineer embodies the young generation of leaders with whom Carlos Tavares has surrounded himself at PSA.

For external candidates for this very exposed position today as general manager of the world’s fourth largest automobile manufacturer, born from the merger of PSA in France, Opel/Vauxhall in Germany and Great Britain and FCA (Fiat Chrysler) in Italy and the United States -United, several names are beginning to circulate in the press and among sources.

JEAN-PHILIPPE IMPARATO, promoted to Deputy Managing Director for Enlarged Europe in October, has managed the Peugeot and Alfa Roméo brands and speaks Italian fluently, but this Frenchman, close to Carlos Tavares, responded at the last Paris Motor Show that he was “not cut out” for this position.

LUCA DE MEO, general director of Renault and architect of the recovery of the diamond group, is of Italian nationality and held management positions at Fiat Chrysler under the leadership of Sergio Marchionne, as well as at Volkswagen, where he managed the Seat brand . The hypothesis of his arrival goes hand in hand with the recurring rumors, and always denied, of a merger between Stellantis and Renault.

To journalists and his close collaborators, Luca de Meo says he is happy in his current position. He participated in a documentary series broadcast soon and celebrating the group’s “comeback” where its mandate was renewed for four years.

DOUG OSTERMANN. This American “car guy” was appointed financial director of Stellantis in October after having held several positions for the group in China, where he played a decisive role in the agreements with the Chinese Leapmotor.

MIKE MANLEY, former general manager of Fiat Chrysler, born in the United Kingdom, succeeded Sergio Marchionne in 2018 and contributed to the creation of Stellantis on the FCA side. He knows the group’s American brands very well and has managed the main AutoNation American dealer network since the end of 2021, an asset in the face of Stellantis’ current difficulties in the United States where its stocks have increased and its sales have fallen.

EDOUARD PEUGEOT. Representative of the ninth generation of the Peugeot family which founded PSA, son of the current representative of the family on the board of directors of Stellantis, Edouard embodies the next generation as president of the family holding company where he was recently appointed to succeed his father. But a source close to the family denied that he was a candidate for the post of CEO of Stellantis.

JOSE MUNOZ, a Spanish national and American citizen, was named last month general manager of Korean giant Hyundai Motor, for which he is credited with record sales in North America. After starting at Citroën in 1989, he held senior positions at Nissan, Toyota and Daewoo.

ANYONE FROM THE TECH WORLD? The Italian daily Il Giornale writes that John Elkann’s preference is for internal recruitment but that he could also consider a profile from the world of “tech” to embody Stellantis’ turn towards the connected electric car.

In 2021, the president of Stellantis chose Benedetto Vigna, an executive at chipmaker STMicroelectronics, to lead Ferrari.

RICHARD PALMER. The former financial director of Stellantis, who left the group in 2023, has just made his comeback by being appointed special advisor to President John Elkann on Monday. The man who was financial director of Fiat and Chrysler for 15 years will participate in the new executive committee responsible for ensuring interim management until the appointment of Carlos Tavares’ successor.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, with Giulio Piovaccari in Milan, Nora Eckert in Detroit and Nick Carey in London)

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