Fiat’s chief technical officer Harald Wester, 51, is the new CEO at Alfa Romeo. He also has the same role at Maserati and Abarth and is responsible for making the new brand grouping work.
Wester, who joined Fiat in 2004 and spent several years working in research at Volkswagen, replaced Sergio Cravero who moved to head Fiat’s product planning.
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Sales at Alfa Romeo were up 8% year on year in 2009 at around 111,000 but in 2000 the brand sold over 203,000 units. This is well below the 300,000 annual sales that analysts have said Alfa needs to make a profit.
Wester is expected to present a five-year plan for Alfa in April with speculation that the famous brand could use Chrysler platforms and relaunch in the US. Fiat owns 20% of Chrysler and has control of the company.
“The purpose of bringing the Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth brands under the same leadership is to emphasise and leverage the value of the shared qualities of the three brands in terms of their sporting characteristics and performance, said Fiat Group chief executive Sergio Marchionne. “Harald Wester, who has demonstrated his enormous commitment on several fronts and achieved optimum results, will bring strong leadership capabilities and solid technical experience and know-how to this project. In his new role, Sergio Cravero will be well positioned to fully [use] his technical and commercial abilities.”
