CEO

TITLE: CEO

COMPANY: Volvo Cars

BASED: Gothenburg, Sweden

AGE: 58

NATIONALITY: Scottish

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Jim Rowan, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, has a master’s degree in business with an emphasis on supply chain and logistics from Northumbria University, northern England. Prior to that, he combined college studies at Glasgow Caledonian University with a four-year mechanical engineering apprenticeship. Rowan worked for Blackberry as COO from 2008-2012. During his tenure, Blackberry’s revenue increased to $20 billion from $5 billion. Rowan moved to Dyson in 2012 as COO, and in 2017 became CEO, a post he held until 2020. At Dyson, he delivered record growth and financial results. Rowan took over as CEO of Volvo Cars in March 2022.

REASON FOR WINNING

Rowan arrived at Volvo just months after its entry onto the Nasdaq Stockholm, which was the biggest IPO in Europe in 2021, with no previous experience as an automotive company CEO. By late 2022 Rowan comfortably took the stage to unveil Volvo’s most expensive full-electric model, the EX90 premium large SUV, and to tease what would become its most affordable EV. During 2023 Rowan not only debuted Volvo’s entry EV, the EX30, but he also led major improvements to the automaker’s existing EVs and plug-in hybrids. The reward for his work was record global sales in 2023 of 708,716 and record operating profit of 25.6 billion crowns ($2.3 billion).

Volvo has carried the momentum into 2024. Global sales were up 11 percent to 498,464 through August, helped by strong demand for the EX30, which has added more than 65,300 sales to the global total. That has Volvo on pace for another sales record. Rowan also has made several decisions this year to reset targets he inherited from his predecessor. Volvo no longer aims to only sell full-electric models globally by 2030, saying that up to 10 percent of its volume would come from mild hybrids with the rest being EVs and plug-in hybrids.