Eighty-six World Car Awards (WCA) jurors from 24 countries collectively, by secret ballot, have voted Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA Group, as the recipient of the prestigious 2020 World Car Person of the Year award.
Carlos Tavares will be presented with the award at the World Car Awards’ 2020 awards ceremony.
Tavares’ many significant accomplishments over the past year made him the jurors’ choice over several other hugely impressive auto industry executives, engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs.
As CEO of PSA Group, Tavares has succeeded in making the brands’ portfolio respected world-class players, returned the company to profitability, and Opel to profitability in record time. He also negotiated a merger of PSA and FCA that will create the fourth-largest automaker in the world by volume, and will better balance the combined entity’s global presence, all while working on the integration of electrification and mobility, and strengthening market development in China and beyond.
On his winning, 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!”
Carlos Tavares 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 of all of us that I accept your honour with humility.”
Previous World Car Person of the Year recipients were Hakan Samuelsson, President, and CEO, Volvo Car Group (2018) and the late Sergio Marchionne, CEO, FCA; Chairman, CNH Industrial; and Chairman and CEO, Ferrari (2019).
The World Car Person of the Year award is just one of the six awards handed out annually by the World Car Awards. The awards were inaugurated in 2003, and officially launched in January 2004, to reflect the reality of the global marketplace, as well as to recognise, reward and inspire excellence, leadership, and innovation in a rapidly changing automotive industry.
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Carlos Tavares, CEO, Groupe PSA interview video