Just a few months after Mary Barra was named CEO of General Motors, the glass ceiling has been shattered in the European auto industry as well.
Well, sort of.
British executive Linda Jackson was named to head PSA Peugeot Citroen's Citroen division. Jackson, 55, is not a group CEO like Barra.
Also, Annette Winkler has been head of Daimler's Smart since 2010. But running a division the size of Citroen is a first for a woman in Europe.
A fluent French speaker with a finance background, Jackson joined Citroen in 2005 and has been running the brand's operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Yes, she is a groundbreaking female executive, but European industry watchers seemed just as intrigued by the fact that Jackson is another top global executive to emerge from the ashes of Britain's Rover Group.
Jackson was at Rover Group/MG Rover for much of her career before Citroen, as were two other notably successful Brits: Andy Palmer, who is Nissan's global No. 3 executive, and BMW's worldwide sales director Ian Robertson.
The sad remnants of British Leyland, Rover went into receivership in 2005, five years after several of its executives had set up the company to buy the loss-making automaker from BMW for £10.
In England, there remains a sense of melancholy about the star-crossed company, and some pride about former Rover executives who climbed the ranks in foreign automakers.
Said Nick Gibbs, Automotive News Europe's U.K. correspondent: "Some great talent was hampered by a whole mess of history."
