Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby suffered a mild stroke last week.
Volvo President and CEO Stefan Jacoby will take a leave of absence for about a month after suffering a mild stroke.
Jacoby, 54, said in a statement that he was fortunate that the stroke he suffered last week wasn’t more serious.
“I was lucky that it was a mild stroke,” Jacoby said. “I am currently experiencing limited movement abilities in my right arm and, to some extent, also in my right leg.
Read on to find out how Volvo will proceed in the near future and the challenges facing the automaker.
In the interim, Volvo CFO Jan Gurander will serve as acting CEO.
Jacoby hopes to return to work in a month or so.
“I have started to recuperate and already notice certain improvements,” Jacoby said in a statement. “Now I will focus on resting and exercising, in order to get back to work as soon as possible. I am however in ongoing contact with the Volvo Car Corporation Executive Management team and the Board of Directors.”
Jacoby spent the majority of his career with Volkswagen, before taking the job leading Volvo in 2010 when China’s Zhejiang Geely purchased the company from Ford. Before taking the job with Volvo, he had been president of Volkswagen of America.
Jacoby has a lot on his plate with Volvo. The company is having difficulty building up its retail network in China while it works on setting up a factory there so it won’t have to export as many vehicles to the world’s largest automotive market.
Volvo is also working on its transitions from Ford which gave it access for a limited time to powertrain components, body stampings, engineering support and tooling as a condition of the $1.8 billion sale.
Jacoby said recently that the company might not make its ambitious sales targets for 2015 in China, which could put a dent in its plan to raise its global sales volume from 450,000 units to 800,000 by 2020.