Jaguar Land Rover is parting company with its chief executive, David Smith, potentially clearing the way for former Opel and BMW boss Carl-Peter Forster to take control.
Forster has been linked with a senior role at JLR for some months and Tata Motors executives were rumoured to have been taking soundings on whether Forster was the right man for job.
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There’s no official word from Jaguar on the replacement for Smith except a statement saying “a replacement will be announced in due course”.
In the meantime Tata Motors boss Ravi Kant will oversee JLR in conjunction with Jag MD Mike O’Driscoll and Land Rover MD Phil Popham.
Smith was JLR’s finance director and came to be highly regarded by Tata Motors during the Ford sell-off. He was the only candidate for the CEO job once Tata took control.
However, unlike many car company CEOs, he lacked wider experience in production, engineering and marketing.
Separately, a JLR spokeswoman declined to elaborate to just-auto on the reasons for Smith’s
departure, which came just days after the manufacturer announced former Toyota head of financial services David Betteley, as its new director of financial services.
“I believe he [Smith] has gone today,” the spokeswoman told just-auto.
“All of the arrangements are confidential – there won’t be any further
details today.”
Additional reporting: Simon Warburton
