Stellantis names Stephanie Hartgrove chief communications officer
Stellantis names Stephanie Hartgrove CCO as it reshapes communications around its global brand portfolio and FaSTLAne 2030.
Stellantis has appointed Stephanie Hartgrove as chief communications officer, placing a communications veteran with more than two decades of experience directly under CEO Antonio Filosa. The appointment takes effect September 1, with Hartgrove also joining the Stellantis Leadership Team.
The move comes while the automaker is reshaping how it manages its brands, capital and regional operations. That gives the CCO role a broader brief than media relations alone. Hartgrove will be taking on reputation and stakeholder communications while the business asks investors, employees, dealers and customers to follow a multi-year strategic reset.
Key Takeaways
- Stephanie Hartgrove becomes Stellantis chief communications officer and joins the company’s leadership team.
- Her appointment comes as Stellantis is implementing its FaSTLAne 2030 strategy across a large global brand portfolio.
- The communications mandate is likely to center on consistency, stakeholder trust and clearer coordination across markets and brands.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- Hartgrove takes over a global communications brief
- The timing makes the role more consequential
- Stellantis has a portfolio coordination problem to solve
- What this changes for communications partners
Hartgrove takes over a global communications brief
Hartgrove joins Stellantis from Johnson & Johnson, where she served as global vice president of MedTech communications and public affairs. She previously held senior communications roles at Baker Hughes and GE, after starting her career in journalism with CNN and Al Jazeera.
That background gives Stellantis a communications leader who has worked across both corporate reputation and complex operating environments. The company is not bringing in a specialist for one market or one brand. It is putting Hartgrove at the center of the group-level communications function and giving her a seat on the leadership team.
Filosa framed the appointment around reputation and trust, saying Hartgrove “brings deep international experience and a proven ability to strengthen reputation, build stakeholder trust and lead through change.”
Clara Ingen-Housz, who had been leading Corporate Affairs and Corporate Communications, is moving into a newly defined role as Head of Public Policy & Regulatory Strategy, International Trade. She will continue to report directly to Filosa, with responsibility for public policy, regulatory and trade strategy.
The split is notable because it separates the external communications mandate from a more specialized policy and trade function. That can give each discipline clearer ownership at a time when automotive companies are dealing with regulatory change, regional industrial policy and increasingly different market conditions.
Nathan Cole
The timing makes the role more consequential
Stellantis launched FaSTLAne 2030 in May as a five-year strategic plan built around sharper brand management, regional autonomy and faster execution. Communications sits across all three of those priorities because a strategy that changes how brands and regions operate also changes what different stakeholders need to hear.
Nearly 260,000 employees across six global regions gives Stellantis a large internal and external communications footprint, according to Stellantis.
The scale matters less as a headline number than as an operating constraint. A group-level communications team has to maintain a coherent corporate narrative while individual brands and regions still need enough autonomy to communicate in ways that fit local markets.
That is why the most practical test of Hartgrove’s appointment will not be whether Stellantis produces a new corporate message. It will be whether the company can reduce contradiction and duplication across its portfolio while still allowing brands to retain distinct identities.
Stellantis has a portfolio coordination problem to solve
Stellantis operates 14 vehicle brands, plus mobility businesses, and sells across more than 130 markets. That structure creates a communications challenge that is different from a company built around a smaller number of consumer brands.
The relevant peer group includes other global automakers with large geographic footprints, but Stellantis combines that scale with a particularly broad collection of legacy brands. Its corporate communications function therefore has to connect group-level priorities with brand-level narratives that may target very different customers and markets.
| Communications layer | What Stellantis needs to coordinate |
|---|---|
| Corporate | Strategy, financial priorities, leadership and reputation |
| Regional | Market conditions, policy issues and local operating priorities |
| Brand | Distinct product, customer and positioning narratives |
For Hartgrove, that makes governance as important as storytelling. The role has to create enough consistency that Stellantis speaks with one credible corporate voice, while avoiding a centralized model that flattens the differences between Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, FIAT and the rest of the portfolio.
What this changes for communications partners
For agencies and other external communications partners, the appointment does not automatically signal an agency review or a change in roster. No such move was disclosed in the announcement, so it would be premature to read one into the leadership change.
What can change is the decision-making structure around briefs. A new group CCO often brings clearer priorities about escalation, measurement, stakeholder mapping and how regional or brand teams work with central communications. Partners working with Stellantis will need to watch for those operating changes rather than treating the appointment itself as a procurement signal.
The broader message is that Stellantis is putting communications leadership close to the CEO while its strategy is still being implemented. That elevates the function’s role in explaining change, but it also raises the standard for coordination. Hartgrove’s early impact will be easier to judge through how consistently the company communicates across brands and regions than through any single campaign or announcement.
