THE former Asia-Pacific managing director of Maserati, Luca Delfino, has been appointed the head of Maserati’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Region.

He replaces Guido Giovannelli, who assumes other responsibilities within Maserati.

Mr Delfino will lead Maserati operations for EMEA and report directly to the brand’s chief commercial officer, Bernard Loire.

He will also retain his current responsibility for Maserati’s customer personalisation service, the FuoriSerie Program.

Mr Loire said: “I am happy there’s an internal turnover and now I’m convinced that Luca, who has a wide international experience, will drive Maserati to success in the EMEA Region.”

Mr Delfino joined Maserati in 2007. His expertise in the automotive industry has recently included the position of managing director in Asia-Pacific, as well as roles of increasing responsibility in the sales and aftersales fields at international level.

In his Asia-Pacific role, his responsibility included two regional offices, two national sales companies and 10 importers.

His countries of responsibility included Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia and India.

Prior to his 14 years with Maserati he was product manager for Delphi Automotive Systems in Italy and previously, project manager for Magneti Marelli Powertrain working on component validation for Fiat and GM applications.

He has a masters of science, electronic engineering, from the university of Pisa.

By Neil Dowling