MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, said Tuesday that a former General Motors executive had been appointed as president of the iconic company, the first foreigner to fulfill the role.
Bo Andersson, 58, previously served as a soldier in the Swedish army before working at General Motors in the United States and, from 2009, as head of Russian automaker GAZ, owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
AvtoVAZ said in a statement that Andersson was likely to take up his position on January 1 next year. The former head of AvtoVAZ, Igor Komarov, left the company to head Russia’s space agency.
International car producers Renault and Nissan plan to increase their stake in AvtoVAZ to a majority holding by 2014. Research by the Boston Consulting Group predicts that Russia will be Europe’s largest car market by 2020.
AvtoVAZ is famous for its box-shaped Lada cars, which were mass-produced in the Soviet Union and remain ubiquitous on Russian roads today.
