Effective September 1, Stellantis is kicking off a sweeping management shakeup across Europe under the direction of Emanuele Cappellano, Chief Operating Officer for Enlarged Europe. Designed to accelerate the group’s “Fastlane 2030” strategic plan, the reorganization essentially boils down to making a select group of managers wear multiple heavy hats simultaneously while keeping the corporate coffee machines running on overtime.
The headlining move is the return of Arnaud Belloni, who spent 16 years at Stellantis’s legacy predecessors before jumping ship to the Renault Group as Global Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Branding Officer. Belloni returns with a vengeance taking over as CEO of Fiat, Abarth, and Lancia while simultaneously acting as Chief Marketing Officer for Europe. He succeeds long-time brand chief Olivier François, who will manage the transition through mid-October before settling into a role as Strategic Advisor for brand and product strategy.
Stellantis is also aggressively pairing up brand management to trim organizational fat. Xavier Chardon, who already heads Citroën, takes on the additional role of CEO at premium sibling DS Automobiles.
In the Commercial Operations Enlarged Europe division under Maurizio Zuares, Gaetano Thorel adds Lancia to his existing oversight of Fiat and Abarth while reporting functionally to Belloni. Similarly, Laurent Diot adds DS Automobiles to his current Citroën responsibilities, reporting to Chardon.
Not every brand squeezed into a duo, however. Jeep gets a newly created role aimed at fixing its identity in the Old World, with Xavier Peugeot named Head of Jeep for Europe to better tailor the American brand to local tastes.
Fabio Catone stays on to lead European operations for Jeep, Ram, and Dodge, reporting functionally to Peugeot. Meanwhile, former Lancia executive Roberta Zerbi transitions to head Customer Journey Excellence and Network Development, shifting her focus directly to dealership networks and buyer experience.
Cappellano framed this game of executive musical chairs as a critical move to simplify corporate hierarchy and hit aggressive Fastlane 2030 targets. Starting September 1, this new team has to turn organizational charts into real-world showroom results.
