Fiat marketing chief Luca De Meo is rumored to have been selected to head up marketing for the Volkswagen Group. De Meo, who was hand-selected by Fiat Group boss Sergio Marchionne, is credited with relaunching Fiat to its current level of success. Volkswagen has long said it wants some Italian-style passion and energy injected into its portfolio and De Meo could be just the man the company needs.
VW has gone shopping for executives in Italy before: Head of design for all of the automaker’s brands, Walter de’Silva was brought in from Alfa Romeo , as well.
De Meo is best known for the Fiat Nuova 500, which is essentially an upmarket, expressively-styled Fiat Panda. It has been a runaway sales success and, at 2,000 euros more than an equivalent Panda, it has kept Fiat’s bean counters happy.
Marchionne, well respected as the captain of the forward-charging Fiat ship, has said that losing one of his hand-selected executives would be a massive blow for the company. Yet since 2005, Marchionne has lost four of his executives. Three moved on to non-competitive ventures, but only De Meo would be leaving the company to work for Fiat’s biggest competitor.
