OREANDA-NEWS. Betsy Atkins has been appointed new member of the Board of Directors of Volvo Car AB (Volvo Cars) as of January 1, 2016. Ms. Atkins joins the board from Silicon Valley where she has been a leading entrepreneur building global technology companies in Internet Infrastructure, Big Data Analytics, Mobile Enablement, and Ecommerce.

Betsy Atkins has been CEO of multiple technology companies and brings deep knowledge on Cloud and Analytics Software and Entrepreneurial Innovation. The appointment of Ms. Atkins further strengthens Volvo Cars’ leading position in connected cars, autonomous drive and electric vehicles. Betsy Atkins started her business career as an entrepreneur co-founding several successful high tech and consumer companies including Ascend Communications.

 “I am delighted to welcome Ms Atkins to the company’s Board of Directors,” says Li Shufu, Chairman of the Board at Volvo Cars. “She brings strong global and operational perspectives on growth and transformation highly relevant to the continued success of Volvo Cars.”

As from January 1, 2016 the Board of Volvo Cars consists of the following members elected by the shareholder’s meeting  Chairman Li (Chairman), Mikael Olsson (Vice Chairman), Betsy Atkins, Winnie Fok, Carl-Peter Forster, Lone F?nss Schr?der, Tom Johnstone, H?kan Samuelsson, Peter Zhang, and Daniel Li.

For the 2014 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 2,252 MSEK (1,919 MSEK in 2013). Revenue over the period amounted to 129,959 MSEK (122,245 MSEK). For the full year 2014, global sales reached a record 465,866 cars, an increase of 8.9 per cent versus 2013. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.

Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 465,866 in 2014 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.

As of December 2014, Volvo Cars had over 26,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China), while engines are manufactured in Sk?vde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofstr?m (Sweden).