WCX 2025: Stellantis Design Chief Gilles Asks - What's Wrong with Diversity?

In a keynote interview at WCX 2025 in Detroit, Gilles addressed how valuable his MBA has been in allowing him to accomplish design goals.

April 8, 2025

Chris Clonts

“It’s not rocket science,” Stellantis design chief Ralph Gilles said when asked about diversity at the leadoff keynote of WCX 2025 in Detroit.

Gilles is one of the most recognizable designers in the automotive world. Respected for vehicles that include the iconic Chrysler 300 and for his longevity with the company (he has reported to 12 different CEOs), he casts a long shadow in a notoriously fickle industry.

Former SAE President Carla Bailo, who moderated the talk, noted that Gilles is on Stellantis’ Global Diversity Council and asked his thoughts on the controversy, driven by the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to get companies to drop their DEI efforts.

“I never saw this coming,” Gilles said. “I didn't realize diversity was a bad thing. When you break down diversity, inclusion and equity, those are all good words. It's how you implement them. I think number one is competence. Competence should be over everything. If they're competent, giving a little stepping stone is always a good thing. And I wonder sometimes: I go back when I was hired in 1992 by Chrysler. Was I a DEI hire? I knew full well my portfolio held up with anyone on the team, so it never came across my mind.

“However, I could see that people tend to like people that look like themselves. It's just human nature to hire people like you, promote people like you. So, sometimes you just have to say, hey, wait a second. Let me consider that person. And that's what we've always been saying, by the way, just take a look at it. It doesn’t mean you have to. We've never had a quota. I don't believe in quotas. It's more opening up your mind. But half of it's just mixing in with each other, then going to visit different colleges, not going to the same [one to recruit] all the time, and that's it. When you look at the fabric of America, your company should reflect that. That's just good business, right? You should reflect the market that you sell to. It's not rocket science.”

Designer with an MBA

Bailo started the conversation asking about Gilles’ MBA from Michigan State University, and what drove him to pursue it. Gilles said it was a promise he made to his father, who was dubious at the value of the design degree his son holds from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. “Chrysler had a fantastic Executive MBA Program, which I'm sure a lot of companies do. And I put my name up. I was one of the first designers to do that, after my mentor and one of my favorite people all time, Tom Gayle, who's also a designer, engineer and businessman. So, I asked what he’d think if I joined the program? He said, Oh, we're excited. Best thing I ever did. I learned so much.”

“Everything that was Greek is now English,” Gilles said. I was able to sit in some pretty big meetings and understand what engineers were saying, what they needed. But bigger than that is understanding the global economics, really macro to micro, really understanding how literally, one drop can have ripples. So, it allowed better decisions, and it allowed me to really get consensus much faster, and we've been able to get some really cool stuff by trading. Design is constantly trading, trading costs for another thing that you may want to do.”

Hopes with AI

Gilles said that Stellantis’ hopes with AI are not only to crunch data faster, but to make certain aspects of vehicles more personable.

“How many of you have ever called the 800 number on your credit card and realized you’re talking to a bot, and the bot keeps saying the same question over again? It's so frustrating. So today, a lot of cars have that frustration. So, the AI should be better than this. We’ve got to use AI to make an interaction that seems civil. So, you don't even know it's a robot anymore, you feel like it's a person,” he said.

Design breakthroughs coming

When Bailo turned to design, Gilles indicated a respect for how the industry has come to the point where some say that many cars look alike, especially in mainstream consumer segments. But he also said design breakthroughs will come but can’t be predicted.

“When you look at a typical SUV, we all have the same crash requirements. Their dynamics are very stringent. The crash racks are the same. For us designers, it's really tough, especially a company like us, where we have a platform that's feeding 20 different nameplates, trying to make sure people don't notice that the platform is underneath all those squares, and give it our character, give it presence,” he said.

He cited the Tesla Cybertruck as a breakthrough design. “Whether you love it or hate it, it is a breakthrough,” he said. He also lauded Kia for its willingness to try many things. “I would give Kia some credit. They're trying everything right now. If you look at Kia design, they're going this way, that way, this way, trying to find the formula.”

He said discipline is still required. “If you have a good brand,” he said. “You don’t necessarily have to mutate the car to the point of unrecognizability.”