AvtoVAZ Hires Bo Andersson as CEO

Russian carmaker OAO AvtoVAZ has recruited Bo Andersson to become its CEO on Dec. 31.

Andersson was in charge of global purchasing at General Motors Co. until he left the company in 2009 to become CEO of Russian truckmaker OAO GAZ. He modernized GAZ operations and returned the company to profitability.

His mission at AvtoVAZ, maker of Lada cars, will be to reverse the company's sliding market share and launch a bevy of new models to be sold in Russia under the AvtoVAZ, Renault and Nissan brands.

The Renault-Nissan alliance, which owns 25% of AvtoVAZ, has agreed to invest 23 billion rubles ($708 million) in the company. The alliance expects to gain 74.5% control of AvtoVAZ, maker of Lada cars, next year.

AvtoVAZ, Renault and Nissan aim to hike their combined share of the Russian market to 40% by 2015 from about 30% today.