Automaker Stellantis has hired Rebecca Reinermann as its new lead marketer for its Opel and Vauxhall brands following the promotion of Patrick Fourniol to become its new European chief of brand marketing and communications.

Reinermann, who has over 15 years of working in marketing across major automotive brands, will join Jan. 1 from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) where she was most recently its area operations manager for Fiat and Abarth in Germany, Austria and Poland.

At FCA, she was the marketing director for both Jeep and Alpha Romeo, joining in 2015. Reinermann had also spent nearly three-and-a-half years as brand manager for Hyundai Motors Europe and four-and-a-half years working in the marketing department of Toyota Motors Europe.

Stellantis was formed at the beginning of 2021 following a merger between FCA and  Peugeot S.A. It owns Chrysler, Fiat, Abarth, Jeep, Maserat, Citroën and several other international car brands.

Joining Stellantis, she will take over from Patrick Fourniol who will step up to become responsible for brand marketing and communications in Europe.

“I am very much looking forward to working with Rebecca who is a marketing and brand expert with a proven track record of developing and implementing automotive brand and product strategies. Together we will continue down our successful route of providing affordable, electrified mobility while driving profitability along with further profiling and emotionalizing the Opel and Vauxhall brands,” said Florian Huettl, chief executive of Opel.

Fourniol has been vp of brand marketing since April 2020, having joined from British sister brand Vauxhall.  He had previously held management positions at Toyota, Renault and VW.

“We thank Patrick Fourniol for all his contributions such as the conception and roll-out of our new positioning and brand values Detox, Modern German and Greenovation and wish him all the best for his new assignment,” Huettl added.

Huettl himself was appointed into the role of head of sales and marketing of Opel/Vauxhall less than a year ago when he succeeded Stephen Norman.

He was then promoted again a few months later to CEO during a reshuffle when his predecessor Uwe Hochgeschurtz, who had only been in his role for a matter of months himself, was appointed as Europe chief operating officer of the parent company.