Volvo Exec to Lead Chinese Manufacturing Operations

The mixing of Scandinavian and Chinese cultures continues at Volvo after Geely took over the now former Ford unit. After earlier this week Volvo announced the appointment of Chinese Freeman Shen as senior vice president for Volvo Cars' China operations, Volvo announced today it has appointed Lars Danielson to be in charge with the future Volvo plant in China.

Danielson has been until now the plant manager at Volvo Cars Torslanda. Geely hopes to build on his expertize and bring his knowledge of the manufacturing process into China. Having been with Volvo since 2006, Danielson will be replaced by Derek Jessiman, currently plant manager for Volvo Cars Gent.

 "I feel very honoured to be given responsibility for ensuring that the Volvos made in China will meet the same high standards as the cars from Torslanda and Ghent," said Danielson.

The chain reaction in the Volvo management structure caused by the move will continue with the appointment of Geert Bruyneel (currently head of the Volvo Cars Body Components) as the manager of the Gent facility and of Mikael d'Aubigne (head of the body plant in Torslanda) as the new manager of the Volvo Cars Body Components unit.

There is yet no solid info on how Volvo's Chinese manufacturing operations will look like. According to unconfirmed info, Volvo plans to build three facilities, in Shanghai's Jiading area, Daqing and Chengdu.

Geely took over Volvo this August, after paying $1.3 billion in cash. As soon as the deal was completed, the Chinese group named Li Shufu, chairman of the board for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, as the chairman of Volvo.