Renault names former Ferrari exec Philippe Krief as CTO, replacing Gilles Le Borgne

Renault Group has named Philippe Krief, a former Ferrari executive, as chief technology officer, succeeding Gilles Le Borgne.

Krief, who is currently CEO of Renault’s Alpine sports and racing brand, will take on the role on Sept. 1 reporting to CEO Luca de Meo. He will retain his post at Alpine.

Le Borgne will take on a strategic advisory role to the CEO, Renault said in a statement on July 17.

Krief will manage all group engineering activities and resources while drawing on his extensive experience, in particular his experience as Ferrari's engineering boss, Renault said.

As head of Alpine, Krief has worked to build a full brand from a single niche model, the A110 sports coupe, starting with the A290 sporty EV revealed this year. A compact electric SUV, the GT, will follow, as will a family of sports cars built around the new A110 and two larger SUVs that are planned for the U.S. market.

Krief, a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, started his career at Michelin, then moved to Fiat Group, Ferrari and Maserati. He then became technical director of the Alfa Romeo brand.

In 2016 Krief returned to Ferrari as director of engineering. He moved to Renault Group in February 2023 as director of engineering and product performance at Alpine, before being named CEO in July 2023.

Le Borgne joined Renault in 2020 from PSA Group, where he had been head of engineering. He led Renault through the first three years of de Meo’s Renaultion turnaround plan for the then-struggling automaker. In particular, he worked to cut development times and costs deeply, in part by reducing complexity.

“He was able to get our engineering moving again, and to regain efficiency, enabling us to deliver a large numberof the models in the Renaulution plan this year,” de Meo said about Le Borgne in a statement.

Le Borgne, a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Ceramiques Industrielles was an engineering executive at PSA Group for more than 30 years before joining Renault Group in January 2020.

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 was an Automotive News Europe Eurostar in 2018 and 2021.