Forster Appointed Jaguar Land Rover CEO

It was only a matter of time until Jaguar Land Rover appoints Carl Peter Forster as CEO, after David Smith decided to leave the company. And according to autoblog.it, all things are already official and Forster will become responsible for the company's well being but, more importantly, he will also be in charge of the international performance of the Nano.

Jaguar Land Rover announced last week that David Smith decided to resign, leaving Ravi Kant, managing director of Tata Motors, to serve as interim CEO.

"The company would like to thank David for his efforts in the role and for his service to Jaguar and Land Rover over many years," JLR said in a statement on Monday last week without providing too many details on Smith's departure.

A possible appointment of Forster as JLR CEO emerged in the media ever since he decided to leave General Motors in Europe. However, some sources familiar with the matter suggested that Forster will indeed join Jaguar Land Rover but not as company CEO. He was believed to be responsible for the European launch of he Nano, an event that is projected to take place in early 2011.

Carl Peter Forster previously served as chairman and Managing Director of Opel and was appointed in 2004 President of GM Europe. He also worked as chairman of Saab and General Motors Vice President and was a member of the GM Automotive Strategy Board. He was one of the guys who believed that Opel must be sold to Canadian - Austrian partsmaker Magna International.