Ralph Gilles, the new head of design at FCA

The first thing I noticed about Ralph Gilles was his Detroit-made Shinola watch. Does everyone in Detroit wear one? “Just about everybody I know,” said Gilles.

“I met Jay Leno. He did a comedy thing there downtown, and I met him and he had one on, the same one I had.”

The response is typical Gilles, an everyman at ease with the leaders of industry and entertainment. With an infectious smile and an easygoing manner, it’s easy to understand why Gilles was recently named to replace Lorenzo Ramaciotti, who is retiring as head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Gilles also was appointed to the FCA Group Executive Council, the highest management-level decision making body within FCA, which is led by Sergio Marchionne, FCA’s CEO.

Gilles was FCA’s North American design chief since June 2009. He’s also served as CEO of Motorsports, president and CEO of the SRT Brand, and CEO of the Dodge Brand for FCA US in addition to his leadership role in design. Having joined the company in 1992, he rose to prominence as lead designer for the 2005 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300.

So it will come as no surprise that Giles drives a Dodge Charger Hellcat.

“What I love about the car is that you don’t feel like a butthead driving around because it’s practical, yet it has exotic car performance,” Gilles said. “We’ve accomplished something very unique with that vehicle. It doesn’t make sense on paper, but you put it all together and the results are pretty interesting.”

That said, large cars have always been close to Gilles’ heart, something he is proud of. “It’s America,” he says, laughing. “And most Americans are pretty good-sized people.”

But Gilles is more than a one-trick pony, and he relishes the challenge of designing cars and trucks, a job that’s gotten easier now that many FCA dealers carry Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles under one roof.

“We’re not a Dodge store anymore; we’re not a Jeep store,” Gilles said, adding that this gives designers “mission clarity,” which allows them to reinforce a brand’s image with each vehicle they create.

“One of the reasons we’re growing is that each individual nameplate is finally hitting its stride. It has a reason for being. I always use the example of the Charger, the Challenger and the 300. Similar cars, built on the same platform, but they serve completely different customers. We don’t want our dealers to have to choose between cars. We want them to choose to stock all of them. So in doing that, we avoid overlap.”

Another way Chrysler has stoked sales is through the use of limited edition “buzz models.” Such models as the Jeep Wrangler Willys Wheeler, Jeep High Altitude, and Black Ram 1500 Express have replaced the concept cars Chrysler was once known for. “And those buzz models, not all of them, I’d say maybe 20 percent of them, become production models or inspire production models. So we take that very seriously.”

Of course, it’s not that FCA can’t produce concept cars, they just prefer the element of surprise. “Yes,” Gilles added. “We’ve changed our philosophy.”

Given that Gilles’ career has been built on the unexpected success of designs such as the 2005 Chrysler 300C and Dodge Charger, it’s little wonder that the recently introduced Jeep Cherokee has been a success, despite its polarizing design.

“People were up in arms over the styling of it and secretly I loved it. I thought, ‘Great. We have tension.’ ”

But Gilles also credits Marchionne. “We had two versions and the Cherokee was by far the riskier one, the one that’s on the road now, and the boss completely endorsed it.”

Gilles finds Marchionne’s willingness to take a risk refreshing. “He doesn’t like me-too solutions; he really likes to have something going and as much as possible wants it to be relevant and surprising. So for a designer that’s right up our alley, and he gets that.”

Of course, designers don’t always get it right and neither does Gilles. He admits that the previous 300 freshening didn’t work (”I honestly think we under-styled it. I think that it lost some of its presence. I like to say that the 2015 got its balls back.”) and he is disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm for the current Viper (”The car’s history has really colored its future. It’s a misunderstood car; always will be.”)

But to talk to Gilles, it’s easy to understand his enthusiasm for his job, whether it’s a sports car or a minivan.

“My goal with the new minivan is to make it impossible to walk past it. That’s my goal. I don’t care who you are, or if you’re a mom or a dad or if you’re a sports car enthusiast. When you’re walking, I want you to turn your head and, “that’s a minivan?” That’s all that I want to accomplish.”