Ferrari names BMW Italy chief to lead marketing push

Ferrari tapped BMW Group Italy president and chief executive Massimiliano Di Silvestre to become its chief marketing and commercial officer, a move that comes as the Maranello carmaker tries to sell electrification without dulling the scarcity that underpins its pricing power. Di Silvestre will take up the post on July 1 and report directly to chief executive Benedetto Vigna.

The appointment lands just days after Ferrari unveiled the Luce in Rome at the Vela di Calatrava – Città dello Sport, presenting it as the start of a new chapter in the company’s history. Ferrari said the Luce is its first full-electric Ferrari and described it as a car built around a radically new architecture that still aims to combine performance with spaciousness, while retaining familiar Ferrari cues.

The timing is delicate. The Luce debut drew criticism from investors and fans, and Ferrari shares fell sharply after the launch, adding pressure to a brand that has long sold emotion as much as engineering. For Ferrari, the challenge now is commercial as well as technical: it must explain why an electric model still belongs in a lineup built on combustion-era mystique, racing heritage and controlled access.

Enrico Galliera, who had been chief marketing and commercial officer since April 2010, is leaving after more than 16 years at Ferrari. The company said his departure had been discussed with Ferrari for some time and that he had decided to begin a new chapter in his professional life, language that points to an orderly transition rather than a sudden break.

Ferrari tied the Luce unveiling to one of its oldest milestones, noting that May 25 also marks the company’s first victory in Rome in 1947, when the Ferrari 125 S won the Gran Premio di Roma. The new model was also shown to Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace, reinforcing Ferrari’s effort to frame the EV not as a departure from the marque’s identity but as an extension of it.

Galliera has already been forced to manage the reaction from longtime customers. He publicly denied that Ferrari was requiring buyers to purchase the Luce in order to qualify for limited-series models, a sign that the company was moving quickly to contain concern among collectors. Bringing in Di Silvestre, a senior BMW executive, suggests Ferrari wants fresh commercial leadership as it enters a phase in which brand management may matter as much as horsepower.