Volvo Cars has appointed Olivia Ross-Wilson as Head of Communications, effective December 2021. She joins Volvo Cars from Ingka Group, the biggest of the 12 franchisees that operate IKEA stores, where she has led communications since 2016.
With more than 20 years of experience working with communication and positioning for consumer-facing brands, Olivia Ross-Wilson brings an important perspective as a member of Volvo Cars executive management.
“I am very pleased to welcome Olivia to Volvo Cars,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “I am confident that her expertise will be a valuable addition to the team as Volvo Cars transforms into a fully electric company with millions of direct consumer relationships.”
In her current role at Ingka Group, Olivia Ross-Wilson is a member of the executive leadership team and leads communication across 30 countries. Her responsibilities include the strategic long-term positioning of IKEA, as well as areas such as key brand marketing activities, PR, public affairs, internal communication and strategic business communication. Prior to assuming her current position at Ingka Group, she was the head of sustainability communications for IKEA Group between 2011 and 2016.
“I want to give our warmest welcome to Olivia,” said Hanna Fager, Head of Corporate Functions at Volvo Cars. “She is a modern leader with a deep and wide-ranging understanding of strategic communication, bringing valuable experience as we move towards becoming a fully electric car company. To cap it all, she knows the ins and outs of working with a brand that, similarly to Volvo Cars, has a rich Swedish heritage and creates products that are part of people’s everyday life all over the globe.”
Before joining IKEA, Olivia Ross-Wilson worked in various PR and marketing roles in London and New York between 1998 and 2011, including for the retailer Marks & Spencer and for brands such as Starbucks, Delta Airlines and Carlsberg through agencies. During this time she also worked for the Clinton Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies in the US, and founded her own communication consulting company, advising clients such as Coca-Cola and Mulberry.
“As a long-term fan and customer of Volvo Cars, I am very excited to be joining the company,” said Olivia Ross-Wilson. “The world needs brands and companies like Volvo Cars to thrive for the future, so I look forward to contributing to the inspiring journey they are on and to the success of its electrification strategy.”
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Volvo Car Group in 2020
For the 2020 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 8.5 BSEK (14.3 BSEK in 2019). Revenue over the period amounted to 262.8 BSEK (274.1 BSEK). For the full year of 2020, global sales reached 661,713 cars (705,452), a decline of 6.2 per cent compared to 2019.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world, with sales of 661,713 cars in 2020 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding since 2010.
As of December 2020, Volvo Cars employed approximately 40,000 (41,500) full-time employees. Volvo Cars’ head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars’ head office for APAC is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China), and body components in Olofström (Sweden).
Under its new company purpose, Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This purpose is reflected in a number of business ambitions: for example, by the middle of this decade it aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars, to sell half of its global volume online and to establish five million direct consumer relationships. Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.
