Former Dyson executive Jim Rowan replaced Samuelson as CEO of Volvo Cars

Reporter | Li Yimeng

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Volvo Cars announced on Tuesday (Jan. 4) that it had hired former Dyson Group executive Jim Rowan as its new CEO, succeeding Hakan Samuelsson.

Rowan is currently the CEO of Ember Technologies, an American consumer electronics brand, and he's been in the job for less than a year. He served as Dyson's CEO from 2017-2020, when the British tech company was developing electric cars but later abandoned the idea. Prior to Dyson, Rowan was coO of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.

Volvo Cars said in a statement that the 56-year-old Scottish executive would succeed Samuelson, 70, from 21 March.

Last year, Volvo completed one of Europe's largest initial public offerings last year. In the past few months alone, the Nordic automaker will welcome a new CEO.

Rowan will be tasked with leading the Swedish automaker, which is majority-owned by China's Geely Holdings, to achieve its goal of making pure electric vehicles account for half of global sales by around 2025 and transforming into a pure electric vehicle brand by 2030.

Volvo said Rowan's global experience in digitalization, innovation, engineering and supply chain was invaluable to the automaker's strategic ambitions.

Samuelsen will continue to serve as chairman of electric car maker Polestar.

Samuelsen joined Volvo's board of directors in 2010 and spent nearly 10 years as CEO of the automaker, and his contract expires this year.

Volvo currently holds a 49 percent stake in Polestar, which is seeking to go public through a reverse merger with gores Guggenheim, a special-purpose acquisition company. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Rowan served as CEO of Dyson from 2017 to 2020 and as the company's Chief Operating Officer from 2012 to 2017. According to information released by Volvo, Rowan achieved record growth and financial results for the company during his tenure at Dyson.

Rowan served as Chief Operating Officer at Research In Motion from 2008 to 2012. During this period, the company's revenue increased from $5 billion to $20 billion.

From 1998 to 2005, he was Vice President of Operations for Flextronics. Flextronics is a $25 billion global manufacturing company with more than 200,000 employees in more than 100 facilities worldwide.

Rowan was born in Glasgow, England. He studied mechanical and manufacturing engineering and electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Caledonia in Glasgow and the Glasgow Institute of Technology. He holds a Master's degree in Supply Chain Management and Logistics Business from Northumbria University in the North of England.