Stellantis NV said Wednesday that Antonio Filosa, who currently oversees the Americas for the automaker, will serve as the company's next chief executive officer.

The internal hire of Filosa, a 25-year veteran of the company, was announced early Wednesday morning and ends a six-month-long search for a new CEO after Carlos Tavares resigned suddenly in early December amid a difficult stretch of slumping profits and sales. The 51-year-old from Naples, Italy, will take the top job on June 23 and is expected to announce a new leadership team then.

Filosa will be tasked with reversing recent market share declines — especially in the automaker's lucrative U.S. and European markets — and continuing to navigate a series of trade challenges amid President Donald Trump's tariffs that earlier had led the company to pause some plants and vehicle shipments. In the United States, the automaker watched as sales fell 15% in 2024, and 12% in the first quarter of this year.

Stellantis, maker of Jeep, Ram, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroën and multiple other brands, said its board of directors unanimously picked Filosa. That decision followed a lengthy search that had focused on several internal and external candidates, including a prior leader of the company when it was known as Fiat Chrylser.

"This place is in my blood," Filosa wrote on LinkedIn Wednesday morning, as he thanked Stellantis Chairman John Elkann and promised to travel to "as many locations as possible" to meet employees over the next month. He's expected to focus those employee visits in Europe and other regions outside the Americas having already traveled to a number of regional facilities, suppliers and dealerships in recent months.

The Michigan resident previously led the Jeep brand and has been a part of the Stellantis top executive team since the current iteration of the company was established in 2021. He is generally well-liked by many key North American stakeholders such as dealers and had been rumored as a leading candidate for months. His current office is in Auburn Hills but a spokesperson wouldn't say where he would be based as CEO.

Filosa had been focused on turning around the automaker's struggling North American operations since last October, when he was promoted to oversee the region amid a wider leadership shakeup. In the days and months after Tavares' departure, Filosa was tapped to oversee the larger Americas region as chief operating officer and later added chief quality officer to his duties.

Prior to his current stint based out of Auburn Hills, Filosa was focused on Stellantis' robust South American market, helping grow the market share of several key brands there such as Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep.

"As many of you know, I have spent the past 25 years working across our regions, functions, and brands in Europe, South America and North America," Filosa wrote in a note to employees. "My first job here was as a paint shop quality supervisor at a plant in Spain, where I worked the night shift."

A shareholder meeting is expected to be called in the coming days so he can be elected to serve on the company's board.

A company statement said the board had appointed Filosa based on his broad experience with the company and his leadership qualities.

Filosa, who holds master's degrees in both engineering and business, is sure to face conflicting priorities in a sprawling company that is headquartered in the Netherlands, but retains deep roots and employment bases in Michigan and across France and Italy. The automaker also seeks to grow its market share in several other regions such as the Middle East and Africa. The company employs close to 250,000 people globally and about 75,000 in North America.

Elkann, who has helmed the company with the help of several core leaders in the absence of a CEO over the past few months, praised Filosa's "deep understanding of our company, his operational abilities, and broad industry knowledge" in a letter to workers announcing the decision. The board, Elkann added, has been impressed by Filosa's recent leadership in North America "during an extraordinarily complex and challenging period."

He thanked employees for their work over the last six months without a permanent leader, and as the company has struggled to regain its footing. A problem-solving approach has been pivotal, he added, amid a "landscape of fast-evolving tariffs and regulations, in addition to increasing competition."

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