SUPER VISION
ABC: Hello, Anna. Nice meeting you and thanks for your time. Firstly, how did you get to this position today – what’s your career background?
AW: I joined Volvo Buses in February, so I’ve been about seven or eight months now on the job, but I’ve been with the Volvo Group for 12 years. It’s my fourth job at the Volvo Group.
I started out in Volvo Penta, working with diesel engines for industrial applications, and then moved to our venture capital company, making investments in different types of tech start-ups, so very much to secure the competitive future of Volvo Group.
After a couple of years there, I got the opportunity to lead a newly-formed unit within Volvo Group called Connected Solutions, which had the connectivity platform and developed different types of connected services to Volvo Group customers around the world.
So, I have been working in Volvo with everything from diesel engines to being at the forefront of service development.
And now, at Volvo Buses, it’s a little bit of all of that. The transformation towards electric is really obvious[ly] … accelerating. Even if it has been tough times due to the pandemic – the impact in the transport industry and other industries of course – I see many exciting opportunities for the future. So, it’s fun to be in the middle of this transformation, now.
Before joining Volvo, I worked as a managing consultant for a Swedish-American management consulting firm, so I was living in the US for three-and-ahalf years. After that, I was working for a company with business in the UK and France as a managing director. So, I have done various things – maybe 10 years outside Volvo and then a little bit over 10 inside Volvo – but I am born and raised in Sweden. Australia is actually very special for me because I was an exchange student in Sydney from ’91 to ’92, so I have a second family and lots of friends in Australia.
ABC: Have you been back since that time when you were an exchange student?
AW: I have been back several times and friends have come over to Sweden, but I haven’t been back for 10 years, so a long time now.
ABC: And maybe if it wasn’t for the pandemic, the BZL launch would have been a good excuse to come down?
