Ripplewood Holdings, the New York private equity group, has hired Thomas Stallkamp, one of the US auto industry's best-known executives, as it seeks to bolster its investments in the sector.

The former president of Chrysler, ousted in 1999 following the US company's $36bn merger with Germany's Daimler-Benz, has been brought in as industrial partner and a board member of Honsel International Technologies (HIT), Ripplewood's newest portfolio company.