For the first time in its 42-year history, a woman will be in charge of the Stellantis automobile factory in Figueruelas (Zaragoza). This is Susana Remacha (1974) from Zaragoza, a rare bird in a highly masculinized sector, who replaces José Luis Alonso in office, who leaves for Vigo. A very welcome replacement at the Aragonese plant, both at the bottom of the line and at the management level, where they applaud the imminent return of this engineer forged in the house to advance on the path of electrification and gender equality.
“He is a very loved person at the plant,” internal sources certify. Among her strengths are her affable treatment and friendliness combined with a great capacity for work and commitment to the company. She also enjoys the approval of the unions. They value her “positive character” for negotiation and constructive dialogue, key to reaching agreements in the past. “She is a worker who breaks glass ceilings wherever she goes,” they add proudly.
His professional career attests to this. Inclined in her youth to study Pharmacy, a talk by an engineer at a cycle of entrepreneurial women prompted her to study Higher Mechanical Engineering at the University of Zaragoza. Of the 111 students enrolled, only 15 were women. Later, a scholarship took him to the bodywork line at the Opel plant in Figueruelas, then part of the American group General Motors (he later moved to the French firm PSA and, since 2021, has been part of Stellantis after the merger of PSA and the Fiat Chrysler consortium).
Over time, he rose to positions of greater responsibility in the Manufacturing and Quality area, where he actively participated in the transformation of the plant for the launch of the Opel Corsa-e electric model and the start-up of the battery workshop. After almost two decades in the factory, at the end of 2021 he went on to direct the group's plant in Villaverde (Madrid), the smallest of the group in Spain: 105,830 cars in 2023 compared to the 365,739 units in Figueruelas or the 531,732 in Vigo.
As the only woman in Spain at the head of an industrial center of these characteristics, her name was added to that of Laura Ros, general director of Volkswagen Spain since 2015; Mar Pieltian, director of Lexus Spain (2020); or Laura Carnicero, vice president of Seat (2022). Illustrious pioneers in a key automotive sector for the national economy, but in which women barely represent 20% of the total workforce, with production chains as a great pending asset.
In this sense, Remacha defends the need to instill in girls from an early stage a concern for STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and to encourage their presence in scientific careers. “If there are not many female engineers, it is impossible to expect there to be many female directors,” she said in 2023 in an interview with Heraldo.
With two daughters studying in Zaragoza during her stay in Madrid, her return to earth means satisfaction both personally and professionally. For the first time, five models will be assembled at the same time in this factory: the Opel Corsa, in its thermal and electric versions; the Peugeot 208, also in different versions; the Opel Crossland; the Citroën C3 Aircross; and the Lancia Ypsilon, now in the pre-series phase.
In addition, it faces great challenges such as the complete electrification of the production lines - with the foreseeable award of the new platform of the STLA Small group - and the promotion of the battery gigafactory that the company plans to install, foreseeably with the help of the Chinese CATL. , for which new allocations of public money await through the Perte VEC. “If the aid arrives, the gigafactory will be built,” certified the Aragonese president, Jorge Azcón. The new director will not lack work.
