Tech Exec Takes the Wheel as Ferrari’s CEO

Ferrari has a new CEO after former boss Louis Camilleri abbrupty announced he would step down after a bout of COVID-19 in December 2020. Now, Benedetto Vigna, a veteran tech executive will take one of the most coveted jobs in the automotive industry, effective September 1.

Vigna comes to the Italian luxury sports car brand from STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor company where he is currently President of its Analog, MEMS (Micro-electromechanical Systems), and Sensors Group. Vigna, an Italian national, first joined STMicroelectronics in 1995 and is the exec who founded the company’s MEMS activities.

“We’re delighted to welcome Benedetto Vigna as our new Ferrari CEO,” Ferrari Chairman and interim CEO John Elkann commented in a press release. “His deep understanding of the technologies driving much of the change in our industry, and his proven innovation, business-building and leadership skills, will further strengthen Ferrari and its unique story of passion and performance, in the exciting era ahead.”

Ferrari, and the automotive industry as a whole, is well in the midst of a transition that is seeing cars become less analog and more digital, with computers and and chips taking playing a more integral part in the vehicles operation and cost — chips can account for 40% of the cost of a new car’s electronic system. Today, there are more than 1,400 chips in a typical vehicle, a number that is only going to grow in coming years.

Vigna chip industry experience will be vital as the company plots increasingly complicated digital vehicles, like the fully electric sports car it aims to produce by 2025.

The company commented that Vigna’s “unique knowledge gained over 26 years working at the heart of the semiconductor industry that is rapidly transforming the automotive sector, will accelerate Ferrari’s ability to pioneer the application of next generation technologies.”

Vigna added, “It’s a special honour to be joining Ferrari as its CEO and I do so with an equal sense of excitement and responsibility. Excitement at the great opportunities that are there to be captured.”

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