TITLE: Chief Software Officer
COMPANY: Stellantis 
BASED: Paris, France
AGE: 51 
NATIONALITY: French

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Yves Bonnefont, who holds a degree from Ecole Centrale Paris, started his career at PSA Group in manufacturing and project management. In 2001 he moved to McKinsey, where he served automotive and high-tech clients. He returned to PSA Group in 2012 in corporate strategy, and in 2014 was named the first CEO of the new DS premium brand. In January 2020 Bonnefont was appointed executive vice president in charge of high-end brand development during the process to merge PSA and Fiat Chrysler into Stellantis. He was named to his current post in January 2021.

REASON FOR WINNING

After developing the DS Automobiles brand at PSA Group, the automaker’s first foray into premium vehicles, Bonnefont is now steering the transformation of Stellantis into an automotive tech company as chief software officer. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says that software-enabled activities such as subscriptions will provide a revenue stream worth at least 20 billion euros, with outstanding margins, by 2030. The automaker will deploy across its brands three new technological platforms powered by artificial intelligence, to be named STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit, and STLA AutoDrive.

To get there, Stellantis will move its vehicles from current dedicated electronic architectures to an open software platform, leveraging partnerships with major tech players such as Amazon, Qualcomm and Foxconn, Bonnefont says. And the group will boost the number of software engineers to more than 4,500, with a hiring push and a dedicated academy to train staff members. "This is a whole new world of possibilities for cars," Bonnefont says.