Jaguar Land Rover Appoints Ralf Speth as CEO

With the very short-lived reign of Carl Peter Forster as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) CEO over in a little over a month, the British brand announced the appointment of Ralf Speth as the CEO. Speth will report directly to Forster who, as you know, moved up within the Tata group and became Tata Motors CEO.

"The introduction of Dr Ralf Speth into Jaguar Land Rover under the guidance of Carl-Peter Forster will considerably strengthen the management of the company and enhance the position and reputation of the two iconic brands in line with the long term strategy of the company," Ravi Kant, Tata Motors vice chairman said according to just-auto.com.

Speth is 54 and has some 22 years of experience in the European auto industry, most of which was at BMW where he also worked when it owned the Land Rover brand.

The management shuffling within the india group began after Jaguar Land Rover’s ex CEO, David Smith decided to leave the company. Tata decided to give the brand to Carl-Peter Forster in January, but one month later found Forster to be more useful as the head of the entire group.

“Tata Motors expects that Mr. Forster’s induction will greatly facilitate its ambition towards being a truly international company,” said Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Indian carmaker.

The search for a new leader for Tata began late last year, when Ratan Tata started the search for a successor, with candidates coming from both the domestic and overseas countries.