Ferrari has named Benedetto Vigna as its Chief Executive Officer. He will join Ferrai on September 1, moving from a firm called STMicroelectronics, where he is currently President of its Analog, MEMS (Micro-electromechanical Systems) and Sensors Group.
It’s an odd move for a luxury car company brand but chairman John Elkann says that Vigna’s “deep understanding of the technologies driving much of the change in our industry” will be the right answer.
Vigna, 52 has been with ST since 1995. The firm deals with semiconductors, which Ferrari says is “rapidly transforming the automotive sector” and will “accelerate Ferrari’s ability to pioneer the application of next generation technologies”.
It will be interesting to see how the stock market reacts to the appointment.
joeblogsf1 
If you look at the costs of developing new cars you find that the in car architecture is now a major cost driver and market differentiator. It is no longer the platform.
One possibility is that ST Microsystems make the sensors for the upper end of Leica’s Digital Camera range. Leica being another luxury brand could be a linkage albeit a bit tenuous.
One more bizarre Ferrari move.
Hard to imagine any reason, nor which added value could the ST connection bring, other than being political appointment.
The group in STM that he headed is not really automotive focused, though it does make automotive sensors.
The main automotive focused group is, unsurprisingly, the automotive and discrete group. This group is making power transistors for automotive apps, specifically GaN and the next big thing in power transistors Silicon Carbide, so he might well have some appreciation of where there industry is going and links for supply agreements…