Stellantis announces multiple leadership appointments in India

Automotive group Stellantis on Tuesday announced additional leadership appointments, including that of Joel Verany as head of sales and marketing efficiency in India.

As part of its leaderships reinforcements, the company said Ashish Sahni has been appointed as lead for customer journey and digital transformation in India, Hitesh Jain as General Counsel and Puneet Sabharwal as head for finance along with responsibility as the sales and marketing controller for Jeep and Citroën brands.

Moreover, Samuel Jacob will be head of Human Resources for the Stellantis India & Asia Pacific (IAP) Region and Sreeji Kumar for information technology and digital transformation, while M Raj Kalyanarajan will take the responsibility for vehicle manufacturing for the Citroën brand, Stellantis India said in a statement.

The company further said Xavier de Gaudemaris will head supply chain operations at Stellantis India and Goëry Weymuller will be responsible for customer experience in India within Stellantis India & Asia Pacific (IAP) region.

They all will report to Stellantis India CEO & Managing Director Roland Bouchara, the statement said.

"The Stellantis India organisation is firmly in place with a rock-solid leadership. The appointed senior executives, with their extensive experience, will support me in integrating our operations, strengthening our processes and driving Stellantis India's operations to the next level," Bouchara said.

Automotive brands under the umbrella of Stellantis include Maserati, Jeep, DS Automobiles and Lancia.

Verany, who has worked with PSA, including Citroen India, for 20 years will support both Jeep and Citroën brands in India to achieve volumes, maintain quality and profitability. He was earlier Vice President Sales and Network, Citroën at PCA India, the statement said.

Sahni, who has over 20 years of experience across industries such as automobiles; travel and tourism; insurance and media, was Director of Digital Marketing at PCA India.

On the other hand, Jain was responsible for legal and company secretary functions at the erstwhile FCA India and Sabharwal was responsible for the finance function at PCA India, the company said.

The company further said Kumar's new role encompasses IT and technology solutions across sales and marketing, after-sales, manufacturing, import and export, connectivity and R&D.

He had joined the erstwhile PCA India as Chief Information Officer in 2020, and is credited to spearheading end-to-end IT solution deployment and activation of Citroën India manufacturing operations, including the C5 Aircross SUV launch in the market, it added.

Weymuller, who has spent 42 years working in PSA in R&D and quality positions in Europe, Latin America and China before beginning his automotive Customer and Product stint in India 4 years ago, has been responsible for Citroën customer satisfaction, the statement said.

Last week the company had announced the appointments ofSaurabh Vatsa and Nipun J Mahajan to lead Citroen and Jeep brands respectively in India.