Ford Motor Company completed its sale of Volvo Cars this week to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which owns China’s largest private carmaker, for $1.8 billion. Geely named Stefan Jacoby to be the new President and CEO of Volvo Cars. Jacoby had previously been the CEO of Volkswagen Group of America.
Jacoby replaces Stephen Odell, who will remain with Ford and become CEO of Ford Europe. John Fleming, who had the post since 2005, will remain executive vice president, Global Manufacturing and Labour Affairs, a post he has held simultaneously since the end of 2009. As head of manufacturing, he is at the top of the reporting structure for Ford’s global supply chain and logistics operations.
Geely, meanwhile, has also named a new board of management for Volvo Cars. Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of Geely, is now also the chairman of Volvo Cars. Among the eight-member board, the company has appointed Lone Fønss Schrøder, who has extensive background in the shipping and logistics sector. She held various senior positions at Danish shipping line A.P. Möller Maersk, and from 2005-2010 she was the president and CEO of Wallenius Lines, the shipping conglomerate that owns or partly owns major car carrier lines including Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, Eukor Car Carriers and UECC. She has previously been chairman of the board at WWL, as well as a board member at the car carrier Höegh.
Schrøder left Wallenius Lines in May. Her successor is Anders Boman, who is taking over as president as well as deputy chairman of Wallenius Marine. His replacement as president of the Europe region for WWL has not yet been named.
Jack Cheng, who had been Fiat Group’s chief procurement officer in China, has been named CEO of the carmaker’s newly established joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile.
Cheng joined Fiat in 2007 following time as the head of Ford China’s procurement office. While head of procurement for Fiat in China, Cheng has led a charge of increased local sourcing in China. In doing so, he helped to restructure the organisation of the purchasing, logistics and engineering departments to give more clarity on the impact of logistics costs. Purchasing and logistics were thus combined while engineering and quality were put together.
“I put the purchasing and the logistics together as they are more commercial, and the quality and engineering together as they are more technical,” he told Automotive Logistics magazine in an article early this year (read more here).
Cheng also revealed he is a passionate guitarist, with a large and growing collection of high-end guitars.
According to an agreement, Fiat and Guangzhou Auto will start building cars in 2011 in Changsha city under a 50-50 joint venture, with an initial production capacity of 140,000 cars and 220,000 engines per year.
SK Krishnan has been promoted to vice president (demand chain management) at Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra. Krishnan, who joined the OEM in 2007, was previously senior general manager for supply chain and logistics. He retains most of his previous responsibilities, including inbound and outbound logistics, and continues to report to Rajesh Jejurikar, the CEO of Mahindra’s automotive division.
In an interview earlier this year, Krishnan and Jejurikar described to Automotive Logistics magazine how they were changing both the shape and the name of supply chain management at the company, to “demand chain management” (read more here). The philosophy behind the shift has been to align planning, production and logistics around dealer orders and thus provide complete visibility through a system called E-enabled demand chain management (eDCM).
The system continues to be rolled out across the Mahindra supplier base. Krishnan is the leader of the eDCM project team.
Paul-Henri Freret, previously managing director of Gefco Brazil, has been appointed customer director at PSA Peugeot Citroën, and has also been named a member of Gefco’s general management committee. Gonzague Collong, previously managing director of Gefco Czech Republic, will take over as managing director of Gefco Brazil.
According to Gefco officials, Freret is new role is technically at the department CPSA, a corporate department at Gefco, through which he coordinates with all Gefco subsidiaries based on the needs of PSA.
As a member of Gefco’s general management committee, he will deal directly with the logistics group’s wider strategy.
Daryl Ridgway has been pointed to Kuehne + Nagel’s North West Europe Regional Management Board as senior vice president for sea freight. He replaced Diederick de Vroet, who has decided to return with his family to the Netherlands.
A 22-year veteran in ocean freight, Ridgway joined K+N in 2002 as the UK LCL (less than container load) manager, and has subsequently served as trade manager for the Indian subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, and since 2008 as director of sea freight operations. The North West European organisation is headquartered in Uxbridge, UK, and spans around 150 locations across the UK, Ireland and the Nordic countries.
Bernard Bot has replaced Henk van Dalen as the chief financial officer of TNT following van Dalen’s appointment as CFO of VimpelCom. Bot, who assumed the post on August 1st, joined TNT in 2005. He previously was a partner at McKinsey & Company, working with clients in the transport, post and logistics sectors.
