Linda Jackson (born 1959) is an English businesswoman, currently the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

since 2021. She was the CEO of

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

from 2014 to 2020.

Career

Linda Jackson grew up in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

. In 1977, she began working her first job in the auto industry in a temporary position as an accounting clerk at

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

. Later that year, she began working in a clerical position at

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

, later

Austin Rover The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland C ...

, and subsequently

Rover Group The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...

. During her time at the company, Rover sponsored her through an executive MBA (EMBA) program at

Warwick Business School Warwick Business School (WBS) is an academic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Warwick University, that was established in 1967 as the School of Industrial and Business Studies. The Business School offers undergraduate, postgradu ...

at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

. She attended evening classes while working and completed the program between 1988 and 1992. Jackson held multiple positions in finance and sales at Rover before being named finance director of Rover France in 1998. She was promoted to managing director in 2000, and European finance director in 2004. In 2005, Jackson joined Citroën as finance director. In 2009, she became finance director of Citroën France before serving as the managing director for Citroën UK and Ireland from 2010-2014. Her main goal during this tenure was to boost brand recognition of Citroën in the UK, a market where Citroën remained a small player on a declining slope, and focused on the dealership distribution network. In 2014, Jackson became the CEO of Citroën. She is the first English woman, and third woman overall, to run a major car company. During her time as CEO, Jackson began overseeing a plan to stabilize and secure profitability of the company. In January 2020, she was succeeded as CEO of Citroën by the deputy CEO

Vincent Cobée Vincent Cobée (born 1968/1969) is a French businessman, and the chief executive officer (CEO) of French carmaker Citroën since January 2020. Cobée earned degrees from the École Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and Harv ...

, and she would instead "lead a study to clarify and support brand differentiation within a brand portfolio". In January 2021, she was appointed as CEO of

following the formation of

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50–50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The comp ...

, the company created by the merger of the

PSA Group The PSA Group (), legally known as Peugeot S.A. (Peugeot Société Anonyme, trading as Groupe PSA; formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles ...

and

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, commercial vehicles, auto parts and production systems. The Italian holding company Exor was the largest ...

(FCA). She took over the position while her predecessor, Jean-Philippe Imparato had transferred to

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

Personal life

Jackson met her late husband, David, at Jaguar while completing her EMBA. He died of cancer in the summer of 2014.

Prizes

* 2018: Named "Most influential woman" in the motor industry by Autocar

References

External links

Official biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Linda 1959 births People from Coventry Living people Women chief executives British women chief executives Peugeot people English chief executives Alumni of the University of Warwick