Polestar's Chairman Change and New Director Nominations
TapTechNews June 21, Polestar, the Swedish high-performance electric vehicle maker, recently announced that its chairman, Håkan Samuelsson, will step down and has appointed Winfried Vahland as his successor. The appointment will take effect after the company's annual general meeting.
TapTechNews has learned that the current chairman of the Audit Committee, Carla DeGeyseleer, will not run for re-election as a director and will focus on her administrative duties. With the approval of the company's annual general meeting, Christine Gorjanc and Xiaojie Shen (Laura) have been nominated as new directors.
According to public information, Winfried Vahland joined Audi AG in 1990 and held the position of head of financial control and profit analysis. Since February 2003, he has served as the vice chairman of ŠKODA AUTO.
Since July 2005, Winfried Vahland, as a vice president of the Volkswagen Group, has taken on the role of president and CEO of Volkswagen Group China. He also serves as the vice chairman of Shanghai Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. and the vice chairman of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd.
Since July 2006, Winfried Vahland has served as an executive vice president of the Volkswagen Group and, as a member of the Group's decision-making body, has full authority over all Volkswagen Group's business in China. In May 2010, Winfried Vahland was appointed chairman of the ŠKODA AUTO board.
On January 12, 2024, Volvo Cars released a statement saying that Winfried Vahland had resigned from his position on the Volvo Cars board and transferred to the board of Polestar, a subsidiary of Geely Holding.
In addition, Xiaojie Shen, who has become a new director this time, has over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry. She joined Volkswagen Group (China) in 2007 as a vice president and has held various senior management positions, including the managing director of Volkswagen Group (China) Import Co. Before that, she served as the sales director of Brilliance BMW.