Dr Ralf Speth ends tenure as Jaguar Land Rover CEO
Long time Jaguar Land Rover boss Dr. Ralf Speth has ended his stint as CEO of the British brands after spending 10 years at the helm. Former Renault boss Thierry Bollor will taken over from him as of September 8. Dr. Speth will continue to be in a leadership role at the Tata-owned firm as the non-executive vice-chairman.
Dr. Speth is credited with turning around Jaguar and Land Rover, and bringing them to their current stature as a strong alternative to the three German brands. In his time, the firm modernized it's line-up by replacing Ford-derived platforms and engines with high-tech in-house developed ones.
The widening of the Range Rover nameplate into a brand can also be attributed to him, along with the associated success it brought with it. For Jaguar, highlights have been taken the marque back to its roots with the Jaguar F-Type, bringing SUVs under its fold and developing the I-Pace, and beating most other luxury carmakers to market with that luxury electric SUV.
Although the recent global financial situation has Jaguar Land Rover recovering from financial difficulties, under Dr. Speth the firm expanded production, created thousands of jobs in its home market and heavily invested in pioneering technology.
Before joining BMW in 1980, Dr Speth worked as a business consultant for a number of years. After 20 years at the Bavarian firm and signing off as vice-president of Land Rover (then owned by BMW), he moved to Ford's Premier Automotive Group as director of production, quality and product lanning. He moved to Jaguar Land Rover from being the head of global operations at German international industrial gases and engineering company Linde Group.