Leonardo CEO makes a move, or six, to beef up sales pitch

ROME — Six months after he was named the new chief executive officer of Italy’s Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo has made his first major management changes in a bid to boost the firm’s export push.

Profumo named Lorenzo Mariani as the company’s chief commercial officer, a position created to address a perceived shortfall in Leonardo’s overseas sales clout.

Mariani, the former managing director of Leonardo’s Land and Naval Defence Electronics division, is a defense industry veteran who is well known in the business and is expected to bring in new contracts.

Prior to Profumo’s hiring as CEO in March, Leonardo — formerly known as Finmeccanica — was run for three years by Mauro Moretti, who created a unified, divisional structure out of the group’s semi-autonomous units such as Alenia and AgustaWestland.

The move was credited with increasing efficiencies and synergies within the firm, but during the reorganization, key competitions were lost, including bids to build Apaches in the U.K. and sell C-27Js to Canada.

That coincided with the release of a number of experienced international managers deemed superfluous by Moretti.

Now Mariani will coordinate international sales efforts across the board at Leonardo, reflecting the newly unified structure of the firm.

“The chief commercial officer is responsible for building one single commercial interface for Leonardo, facilitating business development, with particular focus on the export market,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

In another departure, Mariani will also build a unified structure to handle customer support for the firm — traditionally dealt with by the former units and considered a weak spot.

“Previously, if you bought an AgustaWestland helicopter, you might have customer support from AgustaWestland plus separate customer support from the part of Leonardo supplying the electronics,” said a company source.

After Thursday’s board meeting, other appointments were also announced, including Simonetta Iarlori’s new role will be chief of people, organization and transformation officer.

Chief Financial Officer Gian Piero Cutillo will become managing director of the helicopters division, replacing Daniele Romiti, who will head a Special Projects division, reporting to Profumo.

Alessandra Genco, currently vice president of Group Finance, is replacing Cutillo as CFO.

Manlio Cuccaro, currently deputy managing director of the Airborne and Space division, was appointed managing director of the Land and Naval Defence Electronics division, replacing Mariani.

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