Marelli has named David Slump, 54, an executive at Harman International, as its new CEO, with a target of growing the Japan-based company into one of the world’s five largest automotive suppliers.
Slump is replacing Beda Bolzenius, 65, who is retiring, Marelli said. Bolzenius has led the supplier since it was formed in 2019 after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sold its Magneti Marelli parts unit to Japan’s Calsonic Kansei in a $6.5 billion deal. The two companies were merged to create Marelli, which is fully owned by the U.S. private equity giant KKR.
Marelli is a leading supplier in automotive lighting and sensing technologies (lidar, radar and cameras), and wants to quickly expand its share in electrification, interiors, electronics and software.
“David is tenacious, collaborative and fast and he is the right person to take Marelli to the next level,” Dinesh Paliwal, partner at KKR and executive chairman at Marelli, told Automotive News Europe in a video interview.
Slump was most recently president of global markets, strategy and services at Harman, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics that designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers and businesses, including connected car systems, and audio and visual products.
A graduate of Iowa State University and the University of Chicago, Slump has held senior roles in the automotive and energy sectors, including management positions at General Electric and ABB. He joined Harman in 2009.
Paliwal, 64, who has worked with Slump in their previous tenures at ABB and Harman, said the new CEO has deep experience in the auto industry and the regions where Marelli operates.
“David’s ability to think strategically, rapid decision-making and focus on execution is the right combination that Marelli needs today to reach its next goal: to become one of the world’s five largest auto suppliers within five years,” Paliwal said.
