Ralf Dieter SpethKBEFRS (born 9 September 1955[3]) 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.[4] He has also had roles with BMW, Linde and Ford's Premier Automotive Group. Since 2022, Speth is the chairman of Indian Automaker TVS Motor Company.[5]
Speth started his automotive career with BMW in 1980 and worked for them for 20 years.[7]
In 2002, he joined The Linde Group as head of global operations and vice president of operations. He was also chief operating officer and a member of the executive board at its subsidiary KION Group GmbH.[8]
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.[9]
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.[10] 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 September 2016, Speth was appointed an honorary professor, having previously been an industrial professor.[14]
In October 2016, Speth was appointed an additional director on the board of Tata Sons.[15] 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.[16] He entered into a non-executive role in the company and was succeeded by the CEO of Renault, Thierry Bolloré.[17]
