With the hiring of former Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin marketing veteran Laura Schwab, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is banking on his growing cadre of seasoned automotive industry professionals to deliver him a smooth launch of the company’s first vehicles.
This year, Scaringe has filled his executive roster with at least a half-dozen senior managers who have worked at Tesla, Volvo, Toyota, Nissan, Visteon and Lucid Motors. Several recent high-ranking Rivian hires were from outside automotive, such as Harley-Davidson, Royal Enfield and consumer electronics giants.
Schwab, 47, who left Aston Martin on Nov. 13 and last week joined Rivian as vice president of sales and marketing, a new position, brings two decades of experience dealing with luxury customers who don’t wince at six-figure sticker prices. Her most recent launch, the Aston Martin DBX, is a $200,000 high-performance SUV.
