Berlin, Germany – SPREAD announced the appointment of Yves Bonnefont as strategic advisor, strengthening the company’s leadership as it scales its engineering intelligence platform across automotive, defense, and manufacturing.
Yves Bonnefont brings executive leadership experience at the intersection of automotive engineering, brand strategy, and large-scale software transformation. As Chief Software Officer at Stellantis, he led the group’s global software strategy across 14 brands, driving the transition toward software-defined vehicles, over-the-air platforms, and the insourcing of critical software capabilities. His mandate covered vehicle software architecture, digital platforms, and the integration of software into product development and lifecycle strategy.
Prior to this role, Bonnefont was the founding CEO of DS Automobiles, where he built the premium brand as a standalone entity within Groupe PSA. He defined its product strategy, electrification roadmap, and connected vehicle positioning, and led its global rollout. Earlier, as PSA’s Corporate Strategy Executive Vice President, he played a key role in the company’s turnaround and in shaping its brand and technology architecture during a period of significant industry disruption.
His appointment strengthens SPREAD’s advisory board with direct OEM leadership experience in software-defined vehicles, product architecture, and enterprise-scale transformation.
SPREAD’s Board of Advisors brings together senior leaders with first-hand experience leading, scaling, and governing global industrial organizations. It includes Harald Krüger, former CEO of BMW; Christian Schulz, former CFO of Renk Group and TRATON Group; Stefan Tolle, former President and General Manager Automotive Aftermarket at MANN+HUMMEL; and Christof Kellerwessel, former Director of the MEB Office at Ford. Yves Bonnefont joins this group with deep experience from OEM software leadership and executive management roles.
Yves Bonnefont said:
“I am pleased to join SPREAD’s Board of Advisors. Automotive engineering is entering a new phase where software architecture, data transparency, and system integration define competitive advantage. Having led software transformation inside a global OEM, I understand how difficult it is to align hardware, software, and organizational structures at scale. SPREAD addresses a critical need by making product logic explicit and actionable across domains. I look forward to supporting its next stage of growth.”
Robert Göbel, Co-Founder and Managing Director of SPREAD, said:
“Yves has led software strategy at one of the world’s largest automotive groups during its transition to software-defined vehicles. He has operated at the level where product architecture, brand strategy, and software platform decisions intersect. His experience in insourcing software, structuring global software organizations, and embedding digital capabilities into vehicle programs is directly aligned with SPREAD’s mission to make engineering decisions traceable and scalable.”
This appointment reinforces SPREAD’s commitment to staying close to OEM realities by combining decision intelligence technology with advisory insight grounded in large-scale industrial leadership. With decades of experience leading global automotive transformation and software strategy, Yves Bonnefont will support SPREAD in shaping solutions that help engineering teams navigate the growing complexity of software-defined products and make faster, more confident decisions.
About SPREAD
SPREAD AI empowers global manufacturers to unite, understand, and act on their product data. Founded by Philipp Noll and Robert Göbel in 2019, SPREAD began with the belief that engineering decisions are only as good as the data behind them. That principle still guides how the company builds technology today. Leading global brands use SPREAD's Engineering Intelligence Platform to accelerate development, reduce costs, improve product quality, and increase uptime. SPREAD employs 100 people, primarily in their Berlin HQ. For more information, visit www.spread.ai.