Tim Kuniskis, the recently unretired Ram CEO, is getting three more titles at parent company Stellantis.
The automaker announces July 2 he now will also oversee American brands for the automaker, as well as its North American marketing and retail strategy.
In explaining the promotion, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa – himself newly installed in his role – says in a statement that Kuniskis has “proven time and time again that he is masterful at building brands that reach the heart and soul of the customer. We will leverage (Tim’s) energy, his strategic mindset and his competitive spirit to supercharge all our brand activities.”
Part of Kuniskis’ responsibilities in his new roles will be building and enhancing customer connections with Stellantis’ products, its dealers and its marketing, the automaker notes.
If that weren’t enough on his plate, the Ram CEO also will be overseeing the return of Stellantis’ Street and Racing Technology (SRT) performance division, as the automaker says it seeks to unify high-performance engineering across its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands.
The revitalized and consolidated SRT will be tasked with delivering "vehicles that push the boundaries of power, aerodynamics, handling and technology, on both the street and the track.”
To Kuniskis, the SRT rebirth is akin to “getting the band back together,” adding SRT is another box the automaker needed to check before it embarks on launching products that enable more performance “than we’ve ever seen before” and that the company is building a team of the best engineers in powertrain and vehicle dynamics that will be worthy of the SRT name.
Stellantis is giving the new SRT unit oversight of its North American motorsports’ initiatives under the four previously mentioned brands, including the upcoming return of Ram to the NASCAR truck series in 2026.
After spending 32 years with Stellantis in its prior incarnations, including FCA and DaimlerChrysler, Kuniskis retired last year, but was called back into service after six months. “Luckily, there were some people running the company that let me come back, so I get a do-over,” he told WardsAuto earlier this year.
His return came in the wake of upheaval caused by former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares’ decision to prioritize production of expensive grades of vehicles, including those from Ram, upsetting dealers who were left with unsold inventory and customers with sticker shock. In an effort to improve its lower-cost offerings, earlier this week Ram announced the introduction of relatively lower priced variants of its 2500 heavy duty pickups.
