Ralph Victor Gilles (; born 14 January 1970) is an American automobile designer and executive, and current Chief Design Officer of Stellantis NV. His career started in 1992, where he joined

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

. During his time at Chrysler, he was responsible for designing the

North American Car of the Year The North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year are a set of automotive awards announced at a news conference each January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The jury consists of no more than 60 automotive journalist ...

-winning 2005 Chrysler 300, as well as led the design team that created the 2013 SRT

Dodge Viper The Dodge Viper is a sports car that was manufactured by Dodge (by Street & Racing Technology, SRT for 2013 and 2014), a division of American car manufacturer Chrysler from 1992 until 2017, having taken a brief hiatus in 2007 and from 2011 to 20 ...

. Gilles was the president and CEO of

's SRT brand and senior vice president of design at Chrysler before being promoted to head of design for

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA), now part of Stellantis, was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of Car, automobiles, commercial vehicles, List of auto parts, auto parts and production systems. ...

in April 2015. Following FCA's merger with

PSA Group Peugeot S.A., trading as Groupe PSA () (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles and motorcycles unde ...

forming the

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automaker formed in 2021 through the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of the Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group, PSA (Peugeot S.A.) Group. The company's hea ...

group in 2021, he was appointed the Chief Design Officer of the newly merged company.

Background

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an immigrants, Gilles was raised in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. Gilles is said to have been drawing concept vehicles at the age of eight. When he was fourteen years old, his aunt Gisele Mouscardy sent one of his sketches to then Chrysler chairman

Lee Iacocca Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca ( ; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive who developed the Ford Mustang, Lincoln Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and then reviv ...

. Gilles states that a reply came from K. Neil Walling, Chrysler's design chief at the time, suggesting he attend one of three design schools.

Education

Gilles studied at

Vanier College Vanier College () is an Quebec English, English-language public College (Quebec), college located in the Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public coll ...

in Montreal. He attended the College for Creative Studies in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, and in 2002 received an

Executive MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

Career

In 1992, Gilles joined the design office at Chrysler. During his initial years, he worked in the Design office, and in 2001 was promoted to Director in the design office, responsible for the large cars and family vehicles. In August 2008, he replaced the retiring

Trevor Creed Trevor (Trefor (disambiguation), Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh language, Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', ...

as Senior Vice President of Design. In October 2009, Gilles was promoted to president and CEO of the Dodge car brand. He was replaced as Dodge's CEO in June 2011, remaining Senior Vice President of Design and becoming CEO of Chrysler's Street and Racing Technology division. After four years as the CEO of the SRT and motorsports division, he was promoted to the head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In 2021, the merger of French-based PSA Group with Fiat Chrysler automotive led to the creation of Stellantis N.V., where Gilles became the chief design officer. During his career as an automotive designer, Gilles has been accredited for many designs. While beginning his career, he led the interior design of the Viper GTS/R, Dodge ESX2 Concept, Jeep Jeepster Prototypes. His designs would eventually reach production, the first being the 2002 Jeep Liberty, followed by the 2003 Dodge Viper. After his time doing interior design, the 2005 Chrysler 300c represented the first car whose design Gilles was responsible for. Currently, as Chief Design Officer at Stellantis, he has oversight of all the design operations for the multi-national car company.

Film

Gilles was profiled in the first season of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

docu-series '' Abstract: The Art of Design''. Gilles was interviewed on episode 5, which was focused on automotive design.

Awards

2003 Automotive Hall of Fame Young Leaders & Excellence Award. 2005 Motor Trend Car of the Year; Chrysler 300c. 2005 N’Digo Foundation N’Design Award. 2005 NV Magazine Innovation Award. 2023 EyesOn Design Lifetime Design Achievement Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilles, Ralph 1970 births American people of Haitian descent Living people College for Creative Studies alumni Michigan State University alumni Canadian engineers Chrysler designers American emigrants to Canada Businesspeople from Montreal Haitian Quebecers Chrysler executives American automobile designers People from Oxford, Michigan