Stellantis CEO Contender, Peugeot's Linda Jackson, Eyes Brand Growth Outside Europe

French automakers are in their pomp this week standing up strong and bold against the Chinese automakers that once again flooded into the Paris auto show, two years after making their first major foray into the European marketplace.

And the roaring-lion Peugeot brand pulled the wraps off its D-segment battery-electric vehicle, the E-408, with great expectations that it will put up a decent fight against the invaders.

In this somewhat unsettled time for Stellantis N.V., Peugeot’s CEO, Linda Jackson, must be listed among the leading contenders to replace outgoing group chief Carlos Tavares in 2026, especially considering her impressive business successes with both Peugeot and her previous role as CEO of fellow French brand Citroën.

Jackson began her career automotive straight from school in 1977 as a lowly temporary account clerk at Jaguar. She went on to hold clerical roles at British Leyland, Austin Rover and then the Rover Group where she studied for an MBA at evening business school at Warwick University.

Her first senior role was as finance director with Rover France in 1998 before joining Citroën as finance director in 2009 and then rising to be the first English woman to be made the brand's CEO in 2014.

So, it comes as little surprise that she didn't rise to the bait by rocking the corporate boat when WardsAuto asked: Would Peugeot be making a return to the U.S. market?

Jackson’s reply was unequivocable: “We made a decision when we merged with FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) that Peugeot would not go back into North America and we are not changing our position.”

Obviously, Stellantis has several American brands to cover the U.S. market and Jackson doesn’t see the need to step on any of their toes. Also, she points out, Europe is by far the biggest volume market for Peugeot where it sells between 75% and 80% of its global sales volume.

That said, she does have eyes on expanding the brand in several other global markets. She says: “To be honest with you, we have a number of other regions in the world that are very important for us to be able to grow. One is South America, where we are already strong in Argentina where we have factories in place and we have plans to grow even more.

“The second region in focus is the Middle East and Africa which has traditionally been a very strong territory for Peugeot. The third one is India and the Asia Pacific where we now have a factory in Malaysia to support other markets, and we have been very successful with an importer and a manufacturer agreement in Vietnam.”

Focusing on Europe, Jackson believes Peugeot’s distinctive Gallic design language will be its best weapon against foreign invaders as it continues to close the price gap with them.

She says: “The two most important reasons a customer buys a Peugeot is the exterior design and the interior design. It’s in the DNA of Peugeot.

“I think the role of design has become even more important even than when it was 50 years ago because it now has all of these modern constraints, such as technology and sustainability, so it's super-clever to create a design that stands out.

“At the end of the day, we have to be strong in design or else we won’t stand out.”