Renault CFO Delbos steps down to steer its Mobilize EV brand

PARIS (Reuters) -Clotilde Delbos will step down as Renault’s chief finance officer, she told analysts on Friday, to focus on leading the group’s Mobilize unit.

After six years as finance chief Delbos will be replaced by Thierry Pieton, her deputy, from March 1.

“Clotilde Delbos will mainly focus on her role as CEO of the Mobilize brand … to accelerate its development in the context of the group’s transformation,” Renault said in a statement.

The Mobilize brand is part of the group’s electric vehicle strategy as it seeks to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2040.

Delbos, 55, was appointed as Renault CFO in April 2016, having joined as group controller in 2012. She also served as interim chief executive at the French carmaker after Carlos Ghosn was ousted amid a financial scandal and before the appointment of Luca de Meo in June 2020.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the car industry, Renault was struggling to adjust to life without Ghosn, the architect and long-time boss of its alliance with Japan’s Nissan.

Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on financial misconduct charges, which he denied, and later fled.

(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Gilles GuillaumeEditing by David Goodman)