2021 Eurostars

TITLE: Executive Vice President, Engineering    
COMPANY: Renault Group
BASED: Paris, France
AGE: 58
NATIONALITY: French

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Gilles Le Borgne was an engineering executive at PSA Group for more than 30 years before joining Renault Group in January 2020 in his current job. At PSA he was a platform architect for the Citroen C3 and was chief engineer for the group’s A segment platform. In 2007 he became a senior vice president, leading the EMP2 platform project for compact and midsize vehicles, and advanced concepts and vehicle platforms. Le Borgne was named director of R&D in April 2013 and then group quality and engineering director in September 2016, a post he held until May 2019. He is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Ceramiques Industrielles in France.

REASON FOR WINNING

Gilles Le Borgne left his longtime post as head of engineering at PSA Group – where he won an ANE Eurostar award in 2018 – to join Renault Group in 2020 as chief technical officer. There, new CEO Luca de Meo gave him two daunting challenges: Slash go-to-market time for new models by about 25 percent, to 150 weeks from about 200 weeks; and reduce R&D expenses for new models by more than 35 percent by the end of 2022. Le Borgne and his team are working flat out to make sure that crucial new models such as the Renault R5 and 4ever small electric cars will be launched in less than three years from the date of their styling freeze.

At the same time, in late July Renault announced that in the first half Le Borgne had already exceed the goal he was given for 2022, reducing R&D expenses by 42 percent and, in de Meo’s words, “developing much better products.” The additional R&D savings were the main driver that permitted Renault to reach 1.8 billion euros in total savings by June 2021, ahead of schedule for a turnaround plan that called for over 2 billion euros in savings by the end of 2022.