STOCKHOLM — Volvo Cars and trucks has hired former Dyson Group executive Jim Rowan as its new CEO to triumph Hakan Samuelsson.
Rowan was Dyson’s CEO concerning 2017 and 2020 when the British tech enterprise was producing an electrical motor vehicle, an plan it afterwards dropped. In advance of working at Dyson, Rowan was COO at BlackBerry maker Analysis In Movement.
The 56-year-aged Scottish executive will thrive Samuelsson, 70, on March 21, Volvo mentioned in a assertion on Tuesday.
Rowan is currently CEO at U.S-primarily based consumer electronics manufacturer Ember Technologies, a task he has held for significantly less than a calendar year. He is getting over just months right after Volvo wrapped up its IPO, the greatest in Europe final calendar year.
Rowan will facial area the endeavor of steering the Swedish automaker, which is bulk owned by China’s Geely Keeping, toward its purpose of obtaining 50 percent of its world profits from total-electric autos by mid-decade and be an electric-only manufacturer by 2030.
Volvo stated Rowan’s worldwide encounter in digitalization, disruption, innovation, engineering and supply chains will be worthwhile for the automaker to understand its strategic ambitions.
Samuelsson will continue to be as chairman of electric powered car or truck maker Polestar.
Samuelsson joined Volvo’s board in 2010 and has been CEO at the automaker for nearly 10 years, with his deal coming to an end this 12 months.
Polestar, in which Volvo owns 49 percent, aims to go public by a reverse merger with unique-goal acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Guggenheim. The deal is expected to close in the first fifty percent of 2022.
Rowan was Dyson CEO from 2017 to 2020 and main functioning officer from 2012 to 2017. In the course of his time at Dyson, Rowan sent document progress and economical success for Dyson, according to Volvo’s launch.
Rowan worked for Analysis In Motion as COO from 2008-2012. All through the time period the company boosted revenue to $20 billion from $5 billion.
From 1998 to 2005 he was vice president of functions at Flextronics, a $25 billion world production business with much more than 200,000 employees at extra than 100 factories globally.
Rowan was born in Glasgow. He examined mechanical and creation engineering and electrical and digital engineering at Glasgow Caledonian University and Glasgow School of Technology. He retains a master’s diploma in small business with offer chain administration and logistics from Northumbria University, northern England.
Reuters contributed to this report