Sir Ralf Dieter Speth (born 9 September 1955) is a German automotive executive and a director of Indian company Tata Sons since 2016. From 2010 to 2020, he was the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover. He has also had roles with BMW,

Linde Linde may refer to: Places *Lindes and Ramsberg Mountain District, a former district in Sweden, see Lindesberg Municipality *Lipka, Złotów County, a village in Poland, called Linde before World War II Rivers *Linde (Tollense), a river of Meckle ...

and Ford's Premier Automotive Group. Speth is the chairman of TVS Motor Company.

Education

Speth earned a degree in engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Germany. He later undertook a doctorate of engineering in mechanical engineering and business administration at the University of Warwick.

Career

Speth started his automotive career with BMW in 1980 and worked for them for 20 years. In 2002, he joined The Linde Group and served as head of global operations and as vice president of operations. He was also chief operating officer and a member of the executive board at its subsidiary KION Group GmbH. In 2007, Speth returned to the car industry and joined Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) as director of production, quality and product planning. Following the sale of two of the PAG marques, Jaguar and Land Rover, to Tata, he became chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in February 2010, and a non-executive director of Tata Motors in November 2010. Under Speth's management, JLR increased the company's workforce significantly. "We have added more than 17,000 people in the course of the last five years," he said in an interview published in June 2015. Speth championed the need for R&D and made much of JLR's investment in R&D. "I guess we are the biggest R&D investor in the UK in the automotive business," he claimed. In the

2015 Special Honours As part of the British honours system, the Special Honours are issued at the King's pleasure at any given time. The Special Honours confer the award of the Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of Merit, Royal Victorian Order and the O ...

list, Speth was appointed an honorary

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

for his services to the automotive industry. In August 2019, the award was made substantive following Speth becoming a British citizen. In September 2016, Speth was appointed an honorary professor, having previously been an industrial professor. In October 2016, Speth was appointed an additional director on the board of Tata Sons. On 30 January 2020 he announced his intention to retire from his role as CEO of JLR effective September 2020, but remain on both the JLR and Tata Sons boards. He entered into a non-executive role in the company and was succeeded by the CEO of Renault, Thierry Bolloré. In 2020 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In April 2022, Speth took over the role of chairman of Indian automaker TVS Motor Company succeeding Venu Srinivasan.

Personal life

He is married, with two children, and lives between

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

and Munich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speth, Ralf 1955 births Living people People from Roth (district) German automotive engineers German chief executives Chief executives in the automobile industry Chief operating officers Jaguar Land Rover Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the University of Warwick Alumni of Warwick Business School Engineers from Bavaria Fellows of the Royal Society Tata Motors people