The jostle in job positions at Stellantis Belux continues, as Florian Kraft (39), the Director of Sales & Operations at Peugeot Germany, is taking the wheel as CEO to replace Stephane Levi. Levi, who held the position since March 2021 after being CEO of PSA Belux, is ‘moving on’ within Stellantis to continue his career. What his next job will be, is to be communicated later.

According to the press release, Florian Kraft has both French and German nationality and speaks fluently French, German, English, and Russian. Learning Dutch might be a challenge, as not uncommon with CEOs of multinationals in Belgium.

Nuclear safety authority

Holding a Master’s Degree in physics and economics, he made some remarkable career switches before joining the automotive sector. Like being responsible for the Strasbourg division of the French nuclear safety authority ASN, which controls the nuclear safety and radiation protection in Eastern France.

His Russian language skills he most likely picked up in Moscow, where he was an economic advisor to the general management of the French Treasury for two years. But before these two jobs, Florian Kraft had already gotten acquainted with the automotive sector at Renault (2008-2009).

Renault Fluence program

There he was a deputy to the program manager for the Renault Fluence, which was presented in 2009 also as the carmaker’s first electric car, with a groundbreaking concept at that time of a swappable battery. But by then, Kraft had already moved on.

The Renault Fluence Z.E. featured a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery allowing for an all-electric range of 160 km. In cooperation with Israeli start-up battery service provider Better Place, the first Fluence Z.E. was offered in Israel with a swappable battery in 2012. Still, a year later, the start-up had to file for bankruptcy with 21 swap stations operational in its home country.

In 2016, Florian Kraft joined Nissan, holding several positions for the Japanese carmaker in Dubai, Yokohama (Japan), and Germany. In 2020, he traded his position as Director of Network and Quality at Nissan for his current position as Sales Director at Peugeot Germany. Now he can pack his suitcases again to leave Rüsselsheim for Belgium.