The organisers of the World Car Awards have announced the winner of the inaugural “World Car Person of the Year” award at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show.
Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Car Group’s president and chief executive officer, took the honour for making Volvo an “aspirational brand again”.
“World Car is delighted and honoured to announce that Håkan Samuelsson is the inaugural winner of the 2018 World Car Person of the Year award,” said Mike Rutherford, World Car vice chairperson.
“When deciding who should win this first-time award, we weren’t concerned about the age, nationality or job title of the man or woman concerned. We simply wanted to identify the most worthy individual in the industry,” added Rutherford.
The World Car Awards organisers described Samuelsson as someone who had “successfully integrated his relatively small company into an automotive empire based on another continent”, making reference to the Swedish brand’s Chinese owners.
At the same time, Samuelsson maintained the brand’s identity and “relative independence”, as well as “thoroughly revived” the product line-up.
“I see this award as acknowledgement of the efforts made by the entire Volvo Cars organisation in recent years,” Samuelsson said.
