Bo Andersson Named CEO at AvtoVAZ

OAO AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, has hired Bo Andersson as its CEO, effective Dec. 31. The appointment, which had been expected, will make him the first non-Russian to head the maker of Lada cars.

He succeeds Igor Komarov, who left AvtoVAZ to become deputy director general of Russia's Federal Space Agency in October.

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, cut costs and returned the company to profitability.

His mission at AvtoVAZ 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 (€525 million) in the company. The alliance expects to gain 74.5% control next year.

The three companies operate four assembly plants in Russia that will have combined capacity to make 1.7 million vehicles annually by 2016. By then the companies hope to boost their combined share of the Russian passenger vehicle market to 40% from about 30% today.