Volvo recruits former BMW, GM exec to lead procurement

Buchhauser has worked for BMW, GM and truck maker MAN.

Volvo has lured former BMW and General Motors purchasing executive Martina Buchhauser to take a newly created board-level procurement post at the fast-expanding automaker.

She will be added to the company’s executive management team, a move that increases the size of Volvo’s top board to 15 members.

Buchhauser, 50, has been BMW’s senior vice president of purchasing and supplier network for interior since 2012. In that Munich-based job she was in charge of quality and supply for all interior component manufacturing plants around the globe, Volvo said in a statement.

A Volvo spokesman said the automaker is still working out details on when Buchhauser would start her new job, but he expects her to be on board before year-end.

Volvo also said in the release that Buchhauser, who has held various senior purchasing positions at GM and truck maker MAN since the mid-1980s, has a proven track record in global sourcing, supplier management and close collaboration with engineering and manufacturing organizations.

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in the statement that Buchhauser joins the company “at a crucial moment as we continue to renew our entire model portfolio, expand our manufacturing footprint and develop our global sourcing and supplier base.”

Volvo extended its model offensive with the debut of its second-generation XC60 midsize SUV at last month’s Geneva auto show. Later this year the automaker will unveil the XC40 SUV, the first in an all-new range of compact-sized vehicles. Those models follow the 2015 arrival of the award-winning second-generation XC90 large SUV and sister models such as the V90 station wagon and S90 sedan.

Volvo is also rapidly expanding its global manufacturing footprint by adding factories in China and the United States.

The automaker’s $500 million U.S. plant in South Carolina, where Volvo will make the S60 sedan, will start production next year.

Volvo’s network in China has grown to three plants from zero at the start of the decade. Its facility in Daqing, northern China, is its global hub for S90 output while existing and future 60-series cars such as the XC60 will be built in Chengdu, central China, and production of Volvo’s 40-series vehicles will take place at a plant under construction in Luqiao, southeast China.

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