Ampere's executive team mixes Renault veterans and newcomers

PARIS -- Renault Group has become the first major European automaker to spin off its electric vehicle activities into a stand-alone company with Ampere, which started operations Nov. 1 with group CEO Luca de Meo at the helm. 

De Meo will make a pitch to investors to join in a public listing of Ampere at a capital markets day on Nov. 15. The executives who will run the company were named on Wednesday. They include Renault Group veterans; former VW Group managers (as de Meo once was); and a several executives from other companies and industries.

Here are some of the top managers.

Josep Maria Recasens, COO. Recasens joined Renault in 2021 from Seat as senior vice president of strategy and business development. He has been focused on partnerships and de Meo’s plan to realign the various parts of the group’s business, including separate units for mobility and finance, recycling and circular economy, and internal-combustion drivetrains. He was named chief strategy officer in February of this year. He is also manager for Renault’s business on the Iberian peninsula.

Vincent Piquet, CFO. Piquet joined Renault Group in 2019 as European CFO, and has been CFO of Renault brand since 2022. Before starting at Renault, he worked at General Electric for nearly two decades, holding financial management positions in corporate auditing, health care and energy.

Gilles Vidal, vice president for design. Vidal joined Renault Group in 2020 as head of design at Renault brand, where his recent vehicles included the Scenic Vision compact SUV concept and the Rafale, the brand’s midsize flagship crossover. Before joining Renault, Vidal spent more than two decades at PSA Group, where he led Peugeot design from 2010-20, producing a generation of popular cars such as the 3008 and 5008 crossovers, 2008 small SUV and 508 midsize sedan and station wagon.

Henry Bzeih, vice president of software and systems. Bzeih worked at Ford and Kia in software, hardware and systems engineering before moving to Microsoft. There, he spent four years on edge-to-cloud software, with an emphasis on the automotive industry. He is also a technical adviser to mobility startups.

Luciano Biondo, vice president of industrial operations. Biondo worked at PSA and Toyota before joining Renault in 2020. At Toyota he held the key position of general manager at Toyota’s factory in his home town of Valenciennes, northern France. There he launched the Yaris and Yaris Cross smal cars. Biondo directs the ElectriCity group of EV factories in the region, including assembly plants in Douai and Maubeuge, as well as the Ruitz powertrain site. Ampere plans to build some 480,000 EVs annually in the region by 2025.

Philippe Brunet, vice president powertrain and EV engineering. Brunet started his Renault career in 1998 on the Formula One team, working on the V-10 engine. He then was chief engineer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s first diesel engine, and worked on powertrain software for the Renault Group. He was named head of all powertrain engineering for the alliance in 2018, a position he currently holds at Renault Group.

Luc Julia, chief AI officer. Julia, a specialist in artificial intelligence, was one of the designers of the Siri voice assistant at Apple. He has also been chief technical officer and senior vice president for innovation at Samsung, chief technologist at Hewlett-Packard and co-founded several Silicon Valley startups. He joined Renault in 2021 as chief scientific officer.

Olivier Brosse, global platform leader CMF-EV. Brosse started his career at Renault in 1996, and helped to develop best-selling cars at Nissan in Japan, including the X-Trail, Qashqai and Rogue. Moving to small cars, he worked on the Twingo/Smart “Edison” project with Daimler, new generations of the Renault Clio and Captur, and the Renault Arkana compact, a surprise hit in Europe. In 2021 he became director of engineering development at Renault brand. As head of CMF-EV, he will manage Ampere’s key compact platform, which underpins the Megane and Scenic full-electric vehicles, as well as the Nissan Ariya.

Vittorio d’Arienzo, global platform leader CMF B-EV. D’Arienzo started his career at Fiat in 2001, becoming director of small premium vehicles. He moved to Hyundai Group in 2011, working on strategy for the Hyundai and Kia brands in Europe. D’Arienzo helped to launch the Genesis brand, the N sport line and the modular EV platform strategy at the group. He became director of planning and strategy for Great Wall Motors in Europe in 2020. He moved to Renault Group in April 2023. At Ampere, he will direct vehicles in the small (B) segment, including the forthcoming Renault 4 and 5 and the Alpine A290.