De Meo, now 52 years old, will take office on July 1, the company said. He will replace Clotilde Delbos, who became Renault’s interim CEO after the resignation of Bollore. Delbos will remain acting general director until de Meo takes office, then will become his deputy, the report said.
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The new head of Renault is bound by a non-disclosure agreement with Volkswagen, so his appointment was postponed. For the same reason, he will be able to start working at Renault only after five months, wrote the French newspaper Le Figaro. De Meo’s appointment approved on Tuesday by board of directors chaired by Jean-Dominica Senara, and should be approved in April at the general meeting of shareholders of Renault.
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Born in Milan, De Meo graduated from the university with a degree in business management. He began his career in the automotive industry at Renault in 1992.., then worked for Toyota Motor Europe, in the Fiat Group, where he managed the brands Lancia, Fiat and Alfa Romeo. In 2009, he moved to the Volkswagen Group as Director of Marketing for Volkswagen cars, then was responsible for sales and marketing at Audi.
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De Meo became CEO of Seat in November 2015 (resigned in January 2020), at the same time served on the supervisory boards of Ducati and Lamborghini, and was also chairman of the board of directors of the Volkswagen Group in Italy.
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Over five years, he led Seat to record sales (517,600 cars in 2018., 11% more than in 2017), launched several successful models and created a more sporty brand image, highlighting from it sub brand Cupra targeting young shoppers. In addition to native Italian, de Meo speaks English, French, German and Spanish.
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Renault is in a difficult position after the arrest in Japan at the end of 2018 of President and CEO Carlos Ghosn. In his absence, tensions with Japanese partners Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors manifested themselves, Automotive News notes.
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In addition to the negative consequences of the weakening of the alliance, the company was faced with a decrease in demand in key markets, which worsened its sales and profits.
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