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Volvo Cars Ousts Jacoby, Hires Truck Exec as CEO
Stefan Jacoby has stepped down as chief executive of Volvo Car Corp., which has replaced him with Hakan Samuelsson, former CEO of German truckmaker MAN AG.
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Stefan Jacoby has stepped down as chief executive of Volvo Car Corp., which has replaced him with Hakan Samuelsson, former CEO of German truckmaker MAN AG.
Volvo says it expects Samuelsson to accelerate its expansion in China. He has been a member Volvo's board since the company was acquired by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2010. That also was when Volvo recruited Jacoby from Volkswagen, where he headed the carmaker's U.S. unit.
Jacoby, who suffered a mild stroke last month, was due to return from medical leave next week. Vice Chairman Hans-Olov Olsson says Jacoby was replaced because the board was unhappy with his performance, not because of his health. But Olsson denies news reports that he and Jacoby had clashed over policy.
Volvo pledges to follow through on Jacoby's $11 billion (€8.5 billion) program nearly double Volvo sales to 800,000 vehicles by 2020 and boost the brand's presence in China by erecting two car plants and an engine factory.
That plan has been hampered by the sharp contraction of Europe's auto market and China's flattening car sales. Jacoby said last month the brand would likely miss its goal of selling 200,000 cars in China by 2015, up from 47,000 units last year.
Samuelsson began his career at Swedish truckmaker Scania AB in 1997, joined MAN in 2000 and became CEO five years later. Samuelsson built MAN into the world's third-largest truckmaker, after Daimler and AB Volvo, by expanding existing operations and acquiring VW's Brazil truck unit and a 25% stake in China's Sinotruk.
His tenure at MAN was tumultuous. After Samuelsson's hostile takeover bid for Scania failed in 2007, VW decided to merge MAN and Scania, in which it now holds major equity stakes, with its own truck unit. Samuelsson opposed the three-way merger.
He resigned in 2009 amid a bribery scandal at MAN. German prosecutors said last month they are investigating Samuelson for allegedly aiding the bribery scheme and MAN has sued him for damages. Samuelsson denies any wrongdoing.