9:13 am, March 11, 2020
GROUPE PSA chief executive Carlos Tavares has been voted World Car Person of the Year for 2020.
The announcement was made in Toronto following a secret ballot involving 86 World Car Awards (WCA) jurors from 24 countries.
They said his many significant accomplishments over the past year singled him out among other ‘hugely impressive’ industry executives, engineers, designers and entrepreneurs.
Among them are returning the company to profitability and bringing Opel back to profitability in record time. Tavares also negotiated the merger of PSA and FCA that will create the world’s fourth largest automaker by volume.
One WCA juror commented: ‘His calm, dignified, modest and highly effective approach puts some other executives to shame. At the heart of (his success) is an understanding of customer needs, but it’s all backed with incredible business acumen. That he still manages to be a decent bloke is the icing on the cake!’
Tavares, who will receive his award at the New York International Auto Show on April 8, said: ‘It is a great honour to receive this prestigious award, which I wish to dedicate to all the employees of the Groupe PSA, to its responsible and demanding social partners, and to the supervisory board which guarantees effective governance.
‘Because among our values “win together, agility, efficiency” includes the strength of the collective power, it is in the name all of us that I accept your honour with humility.’
Previous recipients were Volvo Car Group president and chief executive Håkan Samuelsson in 2018, who was the first to be given the honour, and the late Sergio Marchionne, who was chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and chairman and chief executive of Ferrari. He died in July 2018 and was awarded the title posthumously last year.
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