Jason Lusty has been appointed as Seat’s new global marketing director, replacing Suzanne Franz who is moving to Audi AG.

Lusty (pictured), who has been head of marketing in Audi in Germany since 2015, replaces Franz on July 1.

Franz will become head of brand communication and content marketing at Audi AG.

Seat’s vice president for sales and marketing, and chief executive of CUPRA Wayne Griffiths said: “Susanne Franz has done an excellent job in the past four years as global marketing director at Seat.

"Her creativity, passion and professionalism have been fundamental in taking SEAT to the next level. Seat’s success and the launch of the new CUPRA brand would not have been possible without the contribution of Susanne.

“Jason Lusty will give us a new boost on the road we have taken in the past few years. One of his key tasks will be to strengthen and establish CUPRA as a stand-alone brand.

“His 20 years of experience in different advertising agencies and more recently at Audi enables him to combine a global vision of different sectors with an excellent understanding of the automotive industry and future trends.”

Lusty joins Seat with the goal of boosting brand management at a time when the automotive sector is undergoing a transformation and committing to new digital platforms.

After completing a degree in economics and business administration from the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, from 1997 to 2015 he held different positions of responsibility in agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB in Germany and the UK, where he managed the advertising accounts of Audi and Volkswagen as well as other global consumer brands.

In 2010 he was appointed global director of the DDB agency for the Volkswagen brand, and from 2015 until joining Seat he has been the head of marketing at Audi for the German market.

Among other projects, in recent years Lusty managed the launch of the Audi e-tron in Germany and boosted the digitalisation of communication both nationally and locally.