Picat Named Fourth Peugeot Brand Chief in Four Years

PARIS – It isn’t easy being the director of the Peugeot brand.

Vincent Rambaud, who took the job in April 2010, has been unceremoniously replaced by Maxime Picat, until now the director of one of PSA Citroen Peugeot’s two Chinese joint ventures.

Rambaud, who came to PSA in 2007, “has decided, for personal reasons, to leave the group and take a new direction in his professional life,” as the press release phraseology goes.

For the past four years, PSA has struggled with its internal organization. Frederick Saint-Geours headed the Peugeot brand for 17 years until he was promoted in 2008 to counsel new CEO Christian Streiff. Since then, the Peugeot brand has had three leaders, and Picat will be the fourth when he takes over Oct. 1.

PSA is losing millions of euros every week, but CEO Philippe Varin has promised to return the auto maker to the break-even point by 2014.

The Peugeot and Citroen brand managers used to have broad powers over their marques, but today they basically are head salesmen, with a voice in product development. Both managers report to the director of brands, a role occupied by Saint-Geours, who took over in January when Jean-Marc Gales quit PSA.

Gales was named Citroen brand manager in early 2009 and a few months later was promoted to head of both brands when Jean-Philippe Colin, Saint-Geours’ replacement, was let go. Gales later hired Rambaud to manage Peugeot, letting him concentrate on keeping the brands separate.

PSA is providing no details of the latest change in management. In the year’s first half, sales of Peugeot-brand vehicles were down 12.5% year-on-year.

Since January 2011, Picat has been chairman of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobiles after serving as vice chairman from August 2008. China is important to Peugeot’s globalization strategy.

Picat, 38, is a graduate of the prestigious Ecole des Mines de Paris engineering school. He joined PSA in 1998, and has served in manufacturing jobs at factories in France and China.