Volvo announced Monday that Peter Karlsten, currently president of Volvo Trucks in Brazil, will become the new president of Volvo Trucks North America. Karlsten will replace Michel Gigou in a planned succession. Gigou’s foreign service contract expires at the end of 2003, although Karlsten will assume his new position Oct. 1.
Gigou will serve until the end of the year as chairman of Mack Trucks, which is a subsidiary of Volvo. In addition, Gigou will continue to be responsible for the common corporate functions that support both Mack and Volvo until the end of the year. These areas of responsibility include finance, human resources, legal, distribution development, customer satisfaction, parts sales and marketing, business development, communications and marketing.
“Michel Gigou has done an excellent job in managing the coordination of our North American operations and can be proud to have succeeded in accomplishing a significant earnings improvement,” says Leif Johansson, chief executive officer, AB Volvo. “I fully respect his choice to return to Europe when his contract expires at year’s end.”
Karlsten, 46, has served as president of Volvo Trucks in Brazil since 2001. In his new position, he will report to Jorma Halonen, Volvo Trucks president. Gigou has been president and CEO of Volvo Trucks North America since July 1, 2001. Prior to that time, he served since December 1996 as president and CEO of Mack Trucks.
