Volvo Cars is restructuring its executive management, starting 14 April, to, it said, "effectively position the company to capture business opportunities from the transformation of the automotive industry".
Under the new structure, four new areas will report to chief executive Hakan Samuelsson. The organisation is designed to ensure quicker decision making and faster execution, further developing the nimble way of working already existing within the automaker.
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"We have the ambition to be leaders in the transformation of our business, and this requires a leadership providing clarity for fast execution. This is the purpose behind the changes we now make in our executive management structure," said Samuelsson. "We have made many steps in the right direction in recent years, and with this restructuring we will strengthen the leadership to continue that journey."
The commercial operations area will be headed by Lex Kerssemakers, currently in charge of direct consumer business. It will include the three regional organisations of EMEA, Americas and APAC as well as car services, online business and marketing, plus brand.
Javier Varela, currently heading manufacturing and logistics, will run a new industrial operations and quality area which will continue to include manufacturing and logistics as well as procurement and quality.
Product creation will be managed by Henrik Green and includes research and development, design, product strategy and all digital areas, both internally and consumer facing.
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By GlobalDataA fourth area, corporate functions, will be created to strengthen the company's people first culture across the business. It will be headed by Hanna Fager, currently leading people experience (HR) and will add facilities management, government affairs, sustainability and communication.
Group legal and corporate governance, under Maria Hemberg, and group finance, under Carla De Geyesleer, are not affected and will remain as stand-alone functions, reporting to Samuelsson.
The new organisation will be tasked with executing the company's ambitious plans in coming years. By the middle of this decade, Volvo Cars aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars and to establish 5m direct consumer relationships.
Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint across its entire operations, with the ambition to be a climate neutral company by 2040. As a first concrete action towards this ambition, it aims to reduce its CO2 emissions per car by 40% between 2018 and 2025.
