A restructure of Volvo Group truck sales and marketing in some big European markets means new jobs this month for senior managers in the UK.
Management of the group’s two big European divisions, Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks, is being reorganised, with each division given more autonomy in Spain, Belgium, Italy, France, UK and Irish Republic.
Volvo Group’s sales and marketing operation in the UK and Irish Republic at present is headed by Arne Knaben, as Volvo Group UK managing director. Commercial directors at Renault Trucks UK (Nigel Butler) and Volvo Trucks UK (Mike Corcoran) report to him.
But from next month, Knaben is promoted to vice president at the head of the Volvo Trucks Middle East and North Africa division, based at the Volvo Group global head office in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Knaben will have no direct successor in the UK. Instead, Mike Corcoran is promoted from Volvo Trucks UK and Irish Republic commercial director to acting managing director of this division. Hannah Burgess in turn is promoted from product and sales delivery director to acting commercial director.
A recruitment process has now started to find a more permanent boss of the Volvo Trucks UK business, reporting to Volvo Trucks Europe president Roger Alm.
The new Renault Trucks UK and Irish Republic managing director from 1 October, reporting to Lyon, France-based Renault Trucks Europe head Jean-Claude Bailly, is Carlos Rodrigues. He has been chief financial officer at Volvo Group UK since January 2016.
Rodrigues is a chartered accountant who worked for KPMG before joining Renault Trucks in Lyon, France as an audit director early in 2004. He then moved to posts in Spain and Sweden before coming to the UK more than two years ago.
“Our new organisation will support Renault Trucks growth plans in the UK and Ireland markets,” says Rodrigues.
“The strength of the brand and its dealer network is increasingly recognised by the industry. These successes and the dynamism of our Renault Trucks team give me great confidence for the future.”
Arne Knaben has headed the Volvo Group truck sales and marketing operation in the UK and Irish Republic since October 2013. For four years before that, he was in a similar Volvo Group job in Australia.
