The CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, Thierry Bollore, has resigned today after only two years, citing personal reasons. Nothing else was elaborated on regarding his departure; all that we know as of now is that the CFO and 32-year veteran of JLR, Adrian Mardell, has been named the new CEO.
Bollore's resignation will take place on December 31, and he will also vacate his role as a non-executive director of JLR's parent company, Tata motors. Thierry helped to steer the company through quite a difficult time, overseeing the release of the New Land Rover Range Rover and Defender 130, among other models.
One of his ambitions was to improve the quality and reliability of JLR products, and that will surely be an important goal for his successor.
Having taken the helm in late 2020 after exiting Renault, he immediately set about making changes to the automaker's future. His plan was called "Reimagine" and aimed to introduce six fully electric models to Land Rover by 2025 and turn Jaguar into a fully electric brand by 2025. Throughout his tenure, the company has been gripped by production woes, at first seeming to weather them well, but things took a rough turn in early 2022 amid the ongoing semiconductor shortage and the recent war in Ukraine.
In a statement released by JLR, Bollore said, "I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together at Jaguar Land Rover over the last two years. The company's transformation and acceleration towards a sustainable, profitable future as a modern luxury business is underway at a great pace. I would like to thank the whole team for their dedication and passion, and I wish the entire organization the very best for the future."
Thierry had a reputation in the industry for a more hardball approach to the business. His short tenure as Renault's CEO was tumultuous, and it seems like he couldn't leave all of it behind when he joined JLR. According to various sources of gossip, Bollore was butting heads with some bigwigs at Tata about the rollout of his "Reimagine" plan, which may have had a hand in his resignation.
Regardless of the exact reason, what matters right now is for JLR to focus on its future. The company has already started a major conversion of its Halewood UK factory so it can produce the group's upcoming electric vehicles. It also announced the creation of innovation hubs in the UK and Latin America that will help to put the company at the forefront of technical innovation. New CEO Adrian Mardell will surely have his work cut out for him, and we look forward to seeing if he stays the course laid out for him or shakes things up.