PETRONAS Lubricants International Announces Strategic Leadership Changes to Drive Enhanced Performance Across EMEA
New leadership structure puts customers at the heart of the business
11 October, 2023, Santena - PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI) is proud to unveil a strategic restructuring of its EMEA regional leadership team, effective September 1st, 2023. These changes come following the enhanced customer-centric business model and are designed to increase the company’s ability to respond swiftly to market dynamics and customer needs across the EMEA region.
The new model comprises four business units, which will be run by Bart Janssen, Business Head Central & Northern Europe, Luca Gabella, Business Head Iberia, Ciro Lupo, Business Head Italy & Africa, and Burak Işıldak, Business Head Türkiye & ME. The business units will have the responsibility for driving PLI’s strategic agenda and commercial results, together with the ownership of key financial indicators to ensure the sustainability of the business model.
Alongside the new appointments, Jose Eliseo Abascal Di Giulio will lead the EMEA Region’s Marketing organization which has been remodelled to include Marketing, Customer Service, and Customer Excellence functions, to further enhance the interaction between and within departments and ensure an end-to-end customer experience.
Business Head functions will report to Giuseppe Pedretti, Regional Managing Director EMEA, appointed back in April 2023.
"Under our new leadership structure, we have the setup to make the next step in industry agility and customer-centricity across the EMEA region. This transformation empowers our local operations, enabling the teams to navigate the competitive landscape and deliver unmatched value to our customers, partners, distributors, and other stakeholders,” says Giuseppe Pedretti.
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Giuseppe Pedretti, EMEA Regional Managing Director
Effective 1 April 2023, Giuseppe Pedretti has been appointed as EMEA Regional Managing Director. Giuseppe gained significant experience in an earlier role as Chief Commercial Officer for PLI. Most notably, he is rightly associated as the leader who incorporated FMCG-style commercial excellence practices into PLI, critical for the company’s longerterm top line growth strategy gearing towards the highstreet channel, specifically introducing route-to-market for China (Silk Road), Italy (Cavour) and Brazil (Strada), as well as others. In his most recent role as Asia Regional Managing Director since March 2020, he drove the commercial business growth and operations in PLI’s star markets including China, India, and Malaysia to great success. In addition to his EMEA responsibilities, Giuseppe also assumes responsibility for the Arexons business.
Luca Gabella, Business Head for Iberia
With 20 years of experience mastering different skills in various sectors, from banking to automotive, oil& gas and FMCG across Europe and Latin America, Luca Gabella has recently been appointed the Business Head for Iberia, responsible for driving PLI’s strategic agenda and commercial results. Luca specialises in strategy, operations management, budgeting, logistics, retail distribution, cost management, people development and coaching, business process management and control. He has extensive experience in Route-to-Market design and distribution network optimisation.
Ciro Lupo, Business Head for Italy & Africa
Ciro has 25 years of experience, covering a wide range of industries including consulting services, automotive, engineering, and construction. He has been working for PETRONAS for the last 15 years, and during his tenure, Ciro has successfully covered several commercial roles leading sales operations across various international markets and has been overseeing the Italian sales force since 2018. Now the Business Head for Italy and Africa, Italy holding the largest market in the EMEA region and ranks among the top 3 globally for PLI, and Africa, which is a strategic focus area for the company's future growth.
In recent years, he has played a key role in restructuring PLI's distribution network in Italy, where the company proudly holds the top position among the lubricant players. Ciro is board member of CONOU (Consorzio Nazionale degli Oli minerali Usati) and member of the Lubricant Strategy Group in UNEM (Unione Energie per la Mobilità)
Ciro holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico of Turin and an MBA from SDA Bocconi.
Bart Janssen, Business Head for Central & Northern Europe & Export
With over 20 years’ experience as an accomplished leader in devising and executing impactful transformation, commercial, operations and organisation to accelerate business growth, Bart is the newly appointed Business Head for Central & Northern Europe and Export so he will be responsible for driving agenda and commercial results for France, UK, Germany, Benelux, Austria, Poland, Baltics, Eastern Europe, Balkans, and Central Asia.
His ability to craft commercial strategies, optimise supply chains, enhance operational capabilities, redesign organisation structures, increase organisational effectiveness, optimise costs and improve working capital has been well-appreciated over the years and gives him the experience to drive forward in this new role. Janssen has a master’s degree in Econometrics & Operational Research from Tilburg, Netherlands and throughout his career has lived and worked across 30+ countries and 5 continents.
BURAK IŞILDAK, Business Head for Türkiye and Middle East
Burak has 24 years of experience in the lubricants industry and has been with PLI since 1998. He initially managed sales in Türkiye and the Middle East and has evolved into the Market Manager for the region.
Now, he’s leading the region as the Business Head, implementing new sales strategies and contributing significantly to PLI’s growth in Türkiye and the Middle East with his extensive market knowledge.
Jose E. Abascal Di Giulio, EMEA Regional Head of Marketing, Commercial Excellence & Customer Service
Jose has developed a strong passion for Global Marketing and Customer Excellence, Route to Markets, and Sales Efficiency throughout his career. With a proven track record of delivering exceptional results, he has helped numerous organisations achieve their business objectives.
Previously Head of Marketing and Commercial Excellence in PLI ASIA, Jose now assumed the EMEA region challenge. In this new role, Jose will lead the design, development and deployment of commercial initiatives to position PETRONAS as the preferred partner. Jose will be leading a full customer and commercial organisation for EMEA.
About PETRONAS Lubricants International:
PETRONAS Lubricants International Sdn Bhd (PLI) is the global lubricants manufacturing and marketing arm of PETRONAS, the national oil corporation of Malaysia. Established in 2008, PETRONAS Lubricants International manufactures and markets a full range of high-quality automotive and industrial lubricant products in over 100 markets globally. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, PLI has over 30 marketing offices in 28 countries, managed through regional offices in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Turin, Belo Horizonte, Chicago, and Durban.
Currently ranked among the top 10, PLI is driving an aggressive business growth agenda to secure its position as a leading global lubricants company at the forefront of the industry. For more information, please visit www.pli-petronas.com.