Thirty-six years of corporate loyalty to PSA and Stellantis apparently buys you a one-way ticket to the exit door. Jean-Philippe Imparato, the veteran executive who built his entire career climbing the ranks of Peugeot and Alfa Romeo, has officially left the automotive empire. Over in France, the media is treating his departure not just as a standard retirement package, but as a geopolitical map charting a hostile Italian takeover.
Truth be told, Imparato’s corporate execution has been written on the wall for months. The slow-motion guillotine began falling in the autumn of 2025 when his responsibilities over Europe and its regional brands were quietly handed over to Emanuele Cappellano.
By July 1, the latest boardroom reorganization effectively wiped Imparato off the corporate chart entirely. Santo Ficili took the reins of both Maserati and Alfa Romeo, while Luca Napolitano grabbed control of Stellantis & You. Imparato, the man who once ruled the entire Extended Europe empire, suddenly found himself without a single open musical chair when the music stopped playing.
Across the Alps, French commentators are weeping, reading this as a definitive shift in Stellantis’ gravity. The corporate chart now looks undeniably Italian: Antonio Filosa comfortably sits in the CEO chair while simultaneously holding the lucrative North American market; Cappellano dictates terms in Europe; Ficili guards the crown jewels of Italian premium luxury; and John Elkann acts as the puppet master from the Chairman’s seat, maintaining a direct umbilical cord to Exor and the Agnelli family fortunes. Meanwhile, the French legacy of Peugeot, Citroën, and DS Automobiles continues to pump out decent sales volumes, but their managers at the strategic table have been systematically thinned out.
Yet, the hysterical French obsession with passport geopolitics completely misses the broader, uglier picture. Stellantis is neither Italian nor French, it is a cold, passport-less multinational corporation dragging the weight of twenty-seven factories across a crumbling European market.
The actual automotive empire is staring down a brutal sales collapse, relentless EV transition panic, and a painful lack of concrete industrial plans for several forgotten brands. In a house that is actively on fire, the nationality of the firemen matters a whole lot less than whether they actually know how to turn on the hose.
