Volvo digital chief to join MGM Resorts

Volvo’s board member for consumer and enterprise digital, Atif Rafiq, will leave the company effective April 30. Rafiq will move to MGM Resorts International as president of commercial and growth.

Rafiq, 45, joined Volvo’s executive management team more than two years ago, becoming the automaker’s first chief digital officer.

The Silicon Valley veteran, who joined Volvo from McDonald's, played a pivotal role in Volvo’s digital transformation, the company said in a release, adding that under his leadership the automaker built up a global organization with offices in Sunnyvale, California, Stockholm and Shanghai.

Rafiq told Automotive News Europe that he increased the size of Volvo’s team of digital natives in Silicon Valley to 100 people from about 35 when he joined the company. He said the team should grow to about 200 people by the middle of this year.

The executives are coming to Volvo from companies such as Google, Facebook and Netflix, Rafiq said, because they believe the next big challenge in the field is helping companies such as Volvo with the "digitization of the entire mobility sector.”