Christian Meunier, chairman of Nissan’s Infiniti premium brand has jumped ship to become global chairman of Fiat Chrysler Automotive’s iconic Jeep brand.
In a statement, Infiniti said Meunier was “leaving the company due to personal reasons and to pursue other opportunities”.
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Christian Vandenhende, Nissan Motor’s chief quality officer, would oversee Infiniti until a new chairman was named.
Global division vice president Mike Colleran would continue his role and act as deputy chairman, reporting to Vandenhende.
Vandenhende was recently named vice COO and is also Nissan Motor’s lead chief quality officer (CQO) and Alliance EVP of quality and total customer satisfaction.
FCA in a statement named Meunier global president of Jeep and also appointed him to the company’s group executive council (GEC).
“I am delighted to add Christian to the leadership team we’re building to drive FCA forward,” said FCA CEO Mike Manley.
“He brings additional world-class strength and experience to an already proven bench, and I look forward to the continuation of the Jeep brand’s growth under his stewardship.”
Meunier at Nissan had also headed Infiniti global sales, marketing and operations and, previously, the same at Nissan North America, chaired Nissan Canada and served as president of Canada and Brazil.
He earlier held key sales and marketing positions at Ford, Land Rover and Mercedes Benz both in Europe and in the US.
“I’m excited to join the team at FCA,” said Meunier. “The company is one I’ve admired from afar and Jeep is a brand that anyone would be privileged to be a part of.”
An Infiniti spokesman told the Reuters news agency Meunier’s resignation was not related to Nissan’s internal investigation into its former head Carlos Ghosn.
