Håkan Samuelsson
| Håkan Samuelsson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 March 1951 Motala, Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Education | Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering); Wharton School, Philadelphia |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Employer | Volvo Cars |
| Title | Chief Executive Officer |
| Known for | Leadership of Volvo Cars and MAN SE |
Håkan Samuelsson (born 19 March 1951) is a Swedish business executive who is chief executive officer of Volvo Cars, a position he has held twice, from October 2012 to March 2022 and again from April 2025. Between those terms he was board chairman of Polestar. Earlier in his career he was chairman of the executive board of MAN from January 2005 to November 2009.
Trained as a mechanical engineer, Samuelsson spent nearly two decades at the Swedish truck maker Scania before moving into senior roles at MAN and then Volvo Cars. His tenure at MAN ended amid a bribery scandal, and his return to Volvo Cars in 2025 came as the company faced what it described as a challenging and competitive year. Alongside his executive roles, Samuelsson has also served on the supervisory board of Siemens and as board chairman of the ferry operator Scandlines.
Early life and education
Samuelsson was born on 19 March 1951 in Motala, Sweden. He began studying at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1972 and completed a degree in mechanical engineering there in 1977. In 1995 he also attended the Wharton School in Philadelphia.
Career
Scania (1977 to 2000)
Samuelsson joined Scania AB in Södertälje, Sweden, in 1977, working in the field of braking systems design. He subsequently held a series of technical management positions, becoming director of Powertrain in 1988. In 1993 he took over as technical director of Scania Latin America, based in São Paulo. He was later appointed to the executive board of Scania AB, with responsibility for development and production, and also served as the company's deputy group chief executive.
MAN (2000 to 2009)
In July 2000, Samuelsson was appointed chairman of the executive board of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG and a member of the executive board of MAN Aktiengesellschaft, both in Munich. He became chairman of the executive board of MAN in January 2005, succeeding Rudolf Rupprecht, at a board salary of 3.3 million euros. His strategy centred on concentrating MAN's business in high-growth, high-margin areas of transport, powertrain technology and energy, combined with an internationally diversified mix of production sites.
During 2006 and 2007, Samuelsson drew attention for his attempt to take over Scania and merge it with MAN. The bid was rejected by Scania's principal shareholders, Investor AB and Volkswagen AG, and the merger plan was shelved, only to resurface in spring 2008 when Investor sold its Scania shares to Volkswagen. From 24 January 2008, Samuelsson also sat on the supervisory board of Siemens, for which he was paid 165,000 euros in the 2011 financial year.
Samuelsson's time at MAN ended in controversy. A bribery affair during his tenure led Volkswagen, by then MAN's controlling shareholder, to seek personal damages from him, and his relationship with Volkswagen supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piëch broke down. Samuelsson resigned as chairman of MAN's executive board with immediate effect on 24 November 2009; Georg Pachta-Reyhofen was named his interim successor. In January 2011, MAN sought 237 million euros in damages from Samuelsson over the affair, and in 2012 the Munich public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into allegations that Samuelsson and MAN's former chief financial officer, Karlheinz Hornung, had aided bribery. The investigation against Samuelsson was dropped in 2013.
Between companies (2010 to 2012)
In January 2010, Samuelsson was part of a group that bid to buy Saab Automobile from General Motors; the deal did not proceed. From August 2010 he served on the board of Volvo Personvagnar, the Volvo Cars business then owned by the Chinese firm Geely Automobile, and he was also board chairman of Scandlines, a German-Danish ferry operator. He continued to sit on the Siemens supervisory board during this period, a role he had held since January 2008.
Volvo Cars, first term (2012 to 2022)
On 19 October 2012, Volvo Car Corporation announced that Samuelsson had been appointed chief executive with immediate effect, succeeding Stefan Jacoby, who had suffered a stroke weeks earlier. In 2016 Samuelsson was also appointed to the board of AB Volvo, the former parent company of Volvo Cars, and in February 2018 he left the board of the truck maker Volvo Lastvagnar; some accounts of that departure describe it instead as a removal from the board that same month. In 2017 Samuelsson received the Goldene Lenkrad (Golden Steering Wheel) award for his achievements in the automotive industry. On 4 January 2022, Volvo Cars announced that Samuelsson would step down as chief executive on 21 March 2022, to be succeeded by Jim Rowan.
Polestar (2022 to 2025)
From March 2022, following his departure from Volvo Cars, Samuelsson served as board chairman of Polestar, a Swedish electric-vehicle manufacturer. On 18 June 2024, Polestar announced that Winfried Vahland would be appointed to succeed him as board chairman as Samuelsson prepared to retire; he remained in the role into the spring of 2025.
Return to Volvo Cars (2025 to present)
On 30 March 2025, Volvo Cars announced the reappointment of Samuelsson as chief executive, succeeding Jim Rowan, who stepped down on 31 March 2025. Samuelsson took up the post again on 1 April 2025 and is expected to serve a two-year term while the company's board searches for a longer-term successor. The reappointment followed a warning from Volvo Cars that it faced a challenging and competitive year ahead.
Assessment
Samuelsson's career is that of an engineer who rose through a single industry, commercial and passenger vehicles, over five decades, moving from a braking-systems design role at Scania into the top jobs at two major European vehicle makers. His record is mixed. At MAN, he pursued a clear strategic focus on high-margin businesses and pushed for a merger with Scania, but his tenure ended in a bribery scandal that produced a multimillion-euro damages claim against him and a formal criminal investigation, even though that investigation was ultimately dropped without charges. His departure from MAN followed an open conflict with the company's controlling shareholder rather than a planned succession.
His two terms at Volvo Cars show a board repeatedly willing to turn to him as a known, stabilising figure: first as a replacement for an incapacitated chief executive in 2012, and again in 2025 as a caretaker brought back specifically to steer the company through a difficult period while a permanent successor is found. The Golden Steering Wheel award in 2017 indicates industry recognition of his standing in the automotive sector, though the dossier does not provide detail on specific business outcomes achieved during either Volvo Cars term. His brief attempt to buy Saab Automobile in 2010 did not succeed, underlining that not every venture in his career reached completion.