VW Executive Hired as New Volvo CEO

Luxury automaker Volvo, which Ford will sell to Zhejiang Geely of China, has tapped the current head of Volkswagen North America as its new chief executive officer, according to a German newspaper.

The CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, Stefan Jacoby, will replace the British Stephen Odell as the chief of Volvo in August, according to “unspecified sources” cited in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Odell will move on to head the European arm of Ford, the newspaper reported.

Volkswagen has temporarily replaced Jacoby as the head of North American operations “until [his] contractual situation has been clarified.”

“We are holding contract talks with Stefan Jacoby,” VW reported in a statement. “These talks have by no means concluded yet.”

The carmaker, which intends to double its market share in the United States to four percent by 2012, reported that Michael Lohscheller would assume Jacoby’s duties for the Volkswagen Group of America on a temporary basis.

Lohscheller, an executive vice president for Volkswagen, has been responsible for running the financial aspect of the automaker’s United States operations since 2007.

Jacoby became the head of Volkswagen’s North American operations in 2007 and spearheaded a movement to shore up the carmaker’s brand with the “Das Auto” tagline and to grow profitability for its approximately 600 dealerships. Volkswagen is also working on completing a new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee that will produce a new mid-sized sedan.