An Engineer Takes Charge of Lamborghini’s Balance Sheet
Automobili Lamborghini appointed Paolo Poma as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director in June 2017, placing him on the leadership team alongside Chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali. Poma took over from Werner Neuhold, who moved to AUDI AG as Chief Compliance Officer. The role carries a broad remit: finance, administration and control, IT, legal affairs, compliance, and risk management.
The appointment deserves more than a passing glance because of Poma’s background. He holds a degree in Engineering Management from the Polytechnic University of Milan, not the accounting or auditing pedigree you typically find behind a CFO’s desk. At a company where every budget decision eventually shapes the sound, the weight, and the character of a supercar, that distinction matters.
From McKinsey to Ducati to Sant’Agata: A Career Built on Integration
Poma started in construction operations before earning an MBA from SDA Bocconi School of Management. He joined McKinsey & Co. in Milan in 2000, then became Director of Planning and M&A at Ducati two years later. A stint at the Tenaris Group in Buenos Aires followed before he returned to Ducati in 2007, rising through finance roles to become CFO in 2011.
The Ducati chapter resonates most directly with his Lamborghini role. When the Volkswagen Group acquired Ducati in 2012, Poma guided the motorcycle brand through its integration into the conglomerate. Folding a fiercely independent Italian performance brand into a German corporate structure without stripping it of its identity is a delicate act, and Poma had already done it once. He then served as CFO and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Italia from 2015 before moving to Sant’Agata.
For Lamborghini enthusiasts who worry about VW Group influence diluting the brand, Poma’s track record offers a useful data point. Ducati retained its Bologna character and racing DNA under his financial stewardship, even as it gained access to group-level purchasing power and capital. The same balancing act now applies at Lamborghini, where group resources fund ambitious product development while the brand fights to keep its identity distinct from Audi and Porsche.
Why an Engineer-CFO Changes the Conversation About Investment
Most automotive CFOs speak the language of margins, depreciation curves, and cost containment. Poma speaks that language too, but Lamborghini says he views himself as a “business partner first,” emphasizing that salaries are paid by selling cars. His engineering training gives him a framework for evaluating technical proposals that a pure finance executive might lack. When R&D presents a new composite structure or a hybrid powertrain architecture, Poma can assess the engineering risk alongside the financial one.
Lamborghini says Poma considers resource allocation for new technologies a significant challenge. He also oversees IT, which he treats as integral to the company’s financial operations, with a stated interest in leveraging data collection and artificial intelligence to improve business performance. For a company producing a few thousand cars a year, every technology investment carries outsized weight. Spending on the wrong platform or the wrong electrification timeline can consume years of profit.
One source reports that under Poma’s financial leadership, Lamborghini achieved five consecutive years of record results by 2022, delivering over 9,200 cars with nearly €2.4 billion in turnover and an operating profit of €614 million. Those figures put Lamborghini’s operating margin among the highest in the luxury automotive segment. Whether the company can sustain that trajectory through a generational product transition, from naturally aspirated flagships to hybrid successors like the Revuelto and Temerario, depends in large part on how Poma allocates capital.
Brand Protection and Legal Strategy in the Luxury Market
Poma’s portfolio extends well beyond spreadsheets. Lamborghini says he takes a detailed interest in legal topics, seeking a balanced approach between aggressive enforcement and restraint, particularly when it comes to brand protection. In the luxury segment, intellectual property is as valuable as any production asset. Counterfeit merchandise, unauthorized use of design language, and digital brand infringement all erode the exclusivity that allows Lamborghini to command its pricing.
The company also leverages external consultants for navigating complex markets, particularly the United States. For buyers and collectors, this legal infrastructure protects the long-term value of the brand and, by extension, the resale value of the cars themselves. A CFO who understands both the financial and reputational dimensions of brand defense brings a different perspective than one who views legal costs purely as overhead.
What Poma’s Appointment Signals for Owners and Buyers
Lamborghini did not announce specific financial targets or product investment figures alongside this appointment. The move does, however, signal a deliberate choice to install a leader whose career was defined by integrating performance brands into larger corporate structures without losing what made them special.
For prospective Temerario and Revuelto buyers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Lamborghini’s financial leadership now sits with someone who understands both the engineering complexity and the corporate mechanics of funding a supercar program inside the Volkswagen Group. That combination should, in theory, help Sant’Agata secure the investment it needs for future models while maintaining the production discipline that keeps wait lists long and residual values strong.
Forum discussion among Lamborghini owners tends to circle back to a persistent question: does deeper VW Group involvement compromise the product? Poma’s Ducati experience suggests the answer is not automatic. The more relevant question may be whether Lamborghini’s profit contribution to the group, which some enthusiast analyses place at a disproportionately high share relative to unit volume, gives Poma the leverage to protect Sant’Agata’s engineering ambitions. Based on the financial results reported under his watch so far, that leverage appears substantial.
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