Stellantis announced today that Natalie Knight is joining the Company as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Richard Palmer, who currently holds that role, will leave after a 20-year career with the company as part of a transition scheduled to complete by July 10, 2023.
“I’m delighted to have Natalie join Stellantis. She has worked across several industries in both the U.S. and Europe,” said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO. “With her experience and demonstrated business transformation leadership, including a clear ESG focus, she is exactly the right leader to continue accelerating Stellantis’ Dare Forward 2030 strategy. I’m convinced that she will play a strategic role in setting the new impetus and unleashing the great potential of Stellantis’ value.”
Knight will be based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and travel extensively to Europe and other Stellantis markets. Most recently, she served as Chief Financial Offer of Ahold Delhaize, a leading global food retailer based in the Netherlands, which includes the Food Lion, Giant, and Stop & Shop store chains. Before joining Ahold Delhaize, she was the CFO at Arla Foods in Denmark and held several senior finance positions during a 17-year career at Adidas AG in Germany.
Palmer joined the Fiat Group in 2003 and served as CFO of Fiat Chrysler from 2009 to 2017 before assuming the role of head of business development in 2018. He helped orchestrate the merger between the Fiat Chrysler Corporation and Peugeot to form Stellantis in 2021, becoming the CFO of the new organization. He will depart effective June 30, 2023.
Dare Forward 2030 is Stellantis' financial plan focused on doubling the global automaker's 2021 net revenues by 2030. Hailed by Tavares as a holistic effort built on the company's pillars of Care, Tech, and Value, it's off to a good start with a record year in 2022, where net profit increased by 26 percent. The Stellantis merger led to the revived fortunes of Alfa Romeo, which recently launched the new Tonale crossover and the last hurrah of the Dodge Challenger with the awesome SRT 170 Demon. But it hasn't been without controversy, like the planned shuttering of the Jeep assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois.
