Karlsten new chief at Volvo Trucks North America

Peter Karlsten, president of Volvo Trucks in Brazil, will become the new president of Volvo Trucks North America Inc. in a planned succession to Michel Gigou, whose foreign service contract expires at the end of 2003. Karlsten will assume his new position on Oct. 1 this year.

Gigou will continue to serve until the end of 2003 as chairman of Mack Trucks Inc., which also is owned by AB Volvo. In addition, Gigou will continue to be responsible through the end of the year for the common corporate functions that support both Mack and Volvo, including finance, human resources, legal, distribution development, customer satisfaction, parts sales and marketing, business development, communications and manufacturing.

Karlsten has served as president of Volvo Trucks in Brazil since 2001. In his new position, Karlsten will report to Volvo Truck Corp. President Jorma Halonen. Prior to his current position, Karlsten served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility with ABB Group, a global leader in power and automation technologies.