Peter Karlsten will become the new president of Volvo Trucks North America Inc. in a planned succession to Michel Gigou, whose foreign service contract expires at the end of 2003.
Karlsten will assume his new position on October 1. Gigou will continue to serve as chairman of Volvo subsidiary Mack Trucks Inc. until the end of 2003.
In addition, Gigou will continue to be responsible through the end of the year for the common corporate functions that support both Mack and Volvo.
“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. I fully respect his choice to return to Europe when his contract expires at year-end,” said AB Volvo CEO Leif Johansson.
Karlsten has served as president of Volvo Trucks in Brazil since 2001. Prior to that, he served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility with AB Volvo Group.
Gigou has been president and CEO of Volvo Trucks North America since July 2001. Before that, he was president and CEO of Mack Trucks Inc.