Antonio Baravalle is set to quit his job as CEO of Alfa Romeo and leave the Fiat Group to take up a new position with the Italian publishing house Einaudi, Italian newspaper reports claimed today.

Antonio Baravalle is set to quit his job as CEO of Alfa Romeo and leave the Fiat Group to take up a position with the Italian publishing house Einaudi, Italian newspaper reports claimed today. The news was published in the normally reliable Il Sole 24 Ore.

The 42-year-old Baravalle, who has a marketing background, took over as CEO of the Alfa Romeo division in September 2005 from Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, just as a raft of new performance models, including the Alfa 159 and Brera, were being introduced. He has since embarked on a comprehensive overall of the European dealer and distribution, using the UK as a 'case study' and has pushed on with the brand's planned United States re-launch in a year's time.

Baravalle, a graduate in mathematics and physics, joined Fiat in 1999, holding a number of marketing positions before being appointed as the marketing boss for Alfa Romeo in September 2003. Just over a year later he was handed overall responsibility for Lancia, succeeding Luca de Meo who had just been promoted to CEO of Fiat.

Alfa Romeo enthusiasts will remember that Baravalle personally gave the green light to production of the stunning Alfa 8C Sportscar, which had been languishing as no more than a much loved concept, reportedly funding the realisation of the project by finding cost savings from elsewhere. Recently it was revealed the the 8C's Spider variant was also destined for production in 2009. In addition to also green-lighting a Spider version of this car, he has also overseen the development of the new Grande Punto based 'Junior' hatchback (Project 955), which is set to cause a real storm when it arrives in the showrooms next year.

The newspaper says that he is set to become CEO of periodical publisher Einaudi in February. Einaudi is part of the Mondadori group. It has been widely known that Baravalle has been looking to leave to take up a new challenge for sometime and it was reported he was looking to depart earlier in the summer.