Renault Samsung announced late last week that it has appointed its new chief executive officer. The South Korean car manufacturer headquartered in Busan named Renault Group's former program director Stephane Deblaise as its new chief who will be leading the business operations in S. Korea.
According to The Korea Herald, before his assignment to a new role at Renault Samsung, Deblaise worked for the French car manufacturer's advanced projects and crossover vehicle line. He is expected to take over on March 1.
It was said that the 49-year-old will be the first CEO of Renault Samsung, who has a background in engineering. Back at the Renault headquarters in France, he also worked as the automobile manufacturing company's chief engineer who supervise the entry program in the U.S. Deblaise led the product and corporate planning team in China as well as the programs' vice president.
With his new role at Renault Samsung, he is expected to lead and work on successfully introducing eco-friendly vehicles to the local market. The company believes that with his experience and expertise in leading project launches in other markets such as China, Brazil, and France, he will be able to do the same thing in Korea.
Stephane Deblaise will be taking over the CEO role at Samsung Renault Motors from Dominique Signora. The outgoing chief was said to have led the production of the brand's XM3 compact SUV at the Busan plant. The vehicle units are for export to Europe.
Pulse News further reported that Deblaise will also be in charge of the development of the new vehicle lineup running on the modular architecture (CMA), a midsize unibody automobile platform that was jointly developed by Volvo and Geely. Renault Group partnered with China's Geely Holdings to build new eco-friendly vehicles at the company's plant in Busan from 2024.
"Renault Samsung Motors expects Debalise to contribute in developing new eco-friendly vehicles based on Volvo's CMA platform, which was announced recently," Korea Joongang Daily quoted Renault Samsung Motors as saying in a press release.
Finally, as Renault Samsung Motors welcomes Stephane Deblaise, it also expressed its gratitude to Dominique Signora who served the company as CEO for four years.