Opel/Vauxhall promoted veteran Spanish production expert Antonio Cobo as vice president for manufacturing and supply chain. Cobo will succeed Remi Girardon who returns to Opel parent PSA Group in Paris to take up a new, unnamed post at the French automaker.
Girardon was appointed Opel production chief after Carlos Tavares, CEO of Opel parent PSA Group, had said that PSA factories appeared to be more productive than Opel plants. Girardon was dispatched to Opel’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, in August 2017 after the completion of PSA’s acquisition of Opel from General Motors.
Girardon, a 20-year veteran of PSA and its former industrial strategy chief, was appointed to Opel’s management board. Cobo will not be a board member, shrinking the board to five members from six in line with Tavares' aim to streamline management ranks.
Cobo takes up his new role on Jan. 1. The Spanish national joined Opel in 1981 and moves to the job from his role as head of Opel’s Spanish operations and manager of its factory in Zaragoza, Spain.
Cobo has worked for Opel and GM since 1981 and has held various international management functions mainly in the area of manufacturing and quality, with assignments in Spain, Germany and the U.S.
