Volvo Cars is changing its Executive Management Team, replacing chief technology officer Anders Bell with Alexander Petrofski and separating manufacturing from procurement and supply chain, the company said on Wednesday.
Bell will not leave the Geely-backed carmaker and will take on what Volvo describes as a newly formed key strategic startup initiative, defining opportunities to scale the platform and digital technology the company has developed.
The changes take effect on September 1.
The Appointments
Petrofski becomes chief technology officer.
Magnus Nilsson, currently Head of the Ghent plant in Belgium, joins the team as chief manufacturing officer, responsible for production and manufacturing engineering.
Francesca Gamboni takes what Volvo calls a more focused role as chief procurement and Supply Chain Officer.
It is the exact title she held before. Gamboni joined Volvo in October 2023 as chief procurement and supply chain officer, responsible for global supply chain and procurement.
In August 2024 she became Chief Industrial Operations Officer, adding global manufacturing to the brief and joining the management board, after Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Javier Varela left to join Rivian.
From September 1 she returns to the job she held for eleven months two years ago.
Both halves of that reorganisation are now being undone.
Varela’s responsibilities were split in 2024 between Gamboni, who absorbed manufacturing, and Bell, who began reporting directly to the chief executive.
On her LinkedIn profile, Gamboni says her role changed to Chief Industrial Operations Officer in August 2024, describing it in two sentences: “Member of the management board. Responsible for Global Manufacturing, Supply chain and Procurement”
Volvo is now restoring a separate manufacturing seat and moving Bell off technology — reversing, within two years, the structure it built after losing its operations chief and deputy CEO.
What the CEO Said
“I would first like to thank Anders for his significant contributions over the past few years,” Samuelsson said.
“Anders has played a pivotal part in advancing our technology and software to a frontrunner position, as seen by the successful EX60. We are now entering a new phase based on this strong technological foundation laid for our upcoming models. I am therefore pleased to welcome Alexander Petrofski to the EMT as our new Chief Technology Officer, leading us into this new phase.”
On the wider reshuffle: “These changes strengthen our leadership team, reflecting the future priorities and swift execution needed for Volvo Cars’ next phase.”
The company framed the changes as designed to strengthen its leadership and organisation “for an increasingly regionalised world, a fast-transforming automotive industry and new customer expectations in a highly competitive market.”
Volvo did not describe the scope, funding or timeline of the startup initiative Bell will lead, name its focus beyond scaling platform and digital technology, or say whether it will remain wholly inside the company.
Nor did it say who replaces Nilsson at Ghent, or give a reason for narrowing Gamboni’s responsibilities beyond describing the new role as more focused.
The Former Tesla
Bell is the executive Volvo hired back from Tesla to build the technology he is now leaving behind.
He spent 18 years at Volvo from 1998, working on the first XC90, the launch of XC60 production in China and interiors for the 90 series, before Tesla recruited him in 2016 as Senior Director of Engineering in charge of vehicle interiors.
He was there through the development and production ramp of the Model 3 and Model Y, and through Tesla‘s adoption of megacasting — a technique Volvo went on to take up.
In 2021 he moved to Berlin as Tesla‘s Head of Vehicle Engineering for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
He left in late 2022 and returned to Volvo on December 16 as Head of Research and Development, with a brief covering core computing, electrification, connectivity and autonomous driving.
Who Petrofski Is
Petrofski has been at Volvo Cars since May 2005, holding roles including Senior VP of small cars, VP of Energy Solutions and Chief Executive of the Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
His background covers product and programme management for electric vehicles, investment in startups and investor relations during the company’s initial public offering. He led development of the EX90.
The Ghent Connection
Nilsson arrives from Ghent, Volvo‘s oldest plant outside Sweden, opened in 1965 and the only car manufacturing site in Flanders since Ford closed Genk at the end of 2014.
The plant matters beyond its output. Volvo secured up to €119 million in Belgian government support for Ghent in July, and it is one of the European facilities Geely has identified for building vehicles from its wider group.
Geely chairman An Conghui said this week that Volvo‘s European plants will serve as a manufacturing base for high-end and luxury vehicles from the Chinese group, with production expected to begin in 2028 — a strategy first set out by Geely founder Li Shufu at Volvo‘s Gothenburg headquarters in March.
Context
The reshuffle is the latest in a period of turnover at the top of Volvo Cars.
Samuelsson returned as chief executive in 2025, having previously led the company from 2012 to 2022, after Jim Rowan departed.
Varela left for Rivian in 2024, where he is now Chief Operating Officer.
Volvo Cars is majority owned by Geely Holding and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. It operates plants in Gothenburg, Ghent and Košice, Slovakia, alongside sites in the United States and China.
