Broader focus: After five years with Maserati in Australia, Bilgen Tug is now head of marketing and communications for the Italian sports-luxury marque across the South-East Asia and Pacific region.

FORMER Maserati Australia and New Zealand national marketing and public relations manager Bilgen Tug has relocated from Sydney to Hong Kong as marketing and communications manager for the Italian sports-luxury marque’s South-East Asia-Pacific (SEAP) division, with responsibility across the region including the Antipodes.

Ms Tug’s move comes as Maserati continues to expand its operations – both corporate and retail – worldwide as new models come to market and sales volume rises steeply as a result, with 40,000 global sales recorded for the trident brand last year (up 27 per cent) through 420 dealers and 25,100 shipments made in the first half of this year.

The local independent distributor European Automotive Imports (EAI), which trades as Maserati Australia and New Zealand and, along with Ateco Automotive, is part of Neville Crichton’s stable, has appointed former BMW Australia marketing executive Elisa Iurato as Ms Tug’s replacement.

Ms Tug has taken the next step in her career with Maserati after five years with the Australian-based operations, having joined the company early in 2012 as a brand manager and rising to marketing chief in January 2014, reporting to chief operating officer Glen Sealey.

As national marketing and PR manager, Ms Tug played a key role in the expansion of the brand in Australia, which over the period has seen annual sales climb as high as 519 units (in 2015) and, with the Levante SUV now on-board, hit 472 sales in the first seven months of this year (up 47 per cent).

Elisa Iurato

Earlier in her career, Ms Tug spent three years as a brand communications manager with Hyundai Motor Co Australia, and also worked for Porsche in marketing over almost two years.

She also had a brief stint as senior manager of brand and advertising for Citibank Australia, and has worked for various other companies here and abroad including CNH Capital, the Publicis Group and the Australian federal department of employment and workplace relations.

Ms Iurato, meanwhile, joins Maserati after spending the past year working with Sony Mobile Communications as integrated marketing manager (channel marketing).

She previously worked for BMW for five-and-a-half years as integrated marketing manager (brand communications) and, prior to that, for Telstra in various marketing roles over almost seven years.

By Terry Martin