Polestar announces upcoming NASDAQ listing with a strengthened Board of Directors

– SWEDEN, Gothenburg –  Polestar, the pure-play electric performance car brand, today announced its intention to list on the Nasdaq in a proposed business combination with Gores Guggenheim, Inc. (Nasdaq: GGPI / GGPIW / GGPIU), which is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Concurrently, the company plans to strengthen its Board of Directors ahead. The expected Board of Directors should be composed of:

  • Håkan Samuelsson, Board Chairman,
  • Thomas Ingenlath, CEO,
  • Carla De Geyseleer,
  • Daniel Li,
  • David Richter,
  • David Wei,
  • Jim Rowan
  • Karen Francis,
  • Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann.

“Ahead of becoming a publicly listed company, I am delighted to announce a very competent, experienced and international Board of Directors, with a majority of independent directors and in line with the best practices of corporate governance. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Eric Li and Lars Danielsson for the invaluable contribution they have made to Polestar and look forward to Eric Li’s continued support as a major shareholder,” said Board Chair, Håkan Samuelsson.

The changes are expected to broaden the Board’s competence within the electric vehicle space and international capital markets, creating a best-in-class structure in terms of international corporate governance.

About Håkan Samuelsson

Håkan Samuelsson is chairman of the Polestar board, and the executive credited with the transformation of the Volvo Car Group over the last decade. Håkan joined Volvo Car Group in 2010 and was made President and CEO in 2012.  He has overseen a repositioning of the brand, significant growth and a successful IPO, listing the car group on the Stockholm NASDAQ.

An early career built internationally across commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania culminated in 2000 when Mr Samuelsson joined MAN Nutzfahrzeuge.  He was subsequently appointed CEO of MAN Group where built a more efficient organization with a more focused product portfolio.  Håkan serves on the boards of both Ideella föreningen Teknikarbetsgivarna i Sverige and Ideella föreningen Teknikföretagen i Sverige.

Håkan holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

About Thomas Ingenlath

Thomas Ingenlath is the CEO of Polestar.  An internationally recognised vehicle designer, he has held leadership positions with Volvo Car Group and Volkswagen Group. Thomas was appointed CEOr of Polestar in 2017 and has led the Polestar brand from conception and launch to becoming operational, with vehicles on the road across three continents.

Prior to joining Volvo, Thomas built 20 years’ experience working in top design positions at Audi, Volkswagen and Škoda. These roles culminated in his appointment as Director for Design at the Volkswagen Design Centre in Potsdam, designing for all brands of the Volkswagen Group.

Thomas holds a Diploma in Transportation Design from Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Pforzheim and a Master of Art, Vehicle Design from the Royal College of Art in London.

About Carla De Geyseleer

Carla De Geyseleer is an experienced international leader and CFO with more than 20 year’s experience across leading global corporations in different industries.

Carla was most recently CFO of the Volvo Cars Group, and previously CFO of Société Génerale de Surveillance in Geneva. Before that, she was CFO of Vodafone Libertel B.V., and of the logistics company DHL Express Benelux, both located in the Netherlands.

Today Carla is an advisor and board member, appointed as Non Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Hilti AG as well a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Geneva.

Carla De Geyseleer holds a degree in Economic and Financial Sciences from Economische School Sint Aloysius and an Executive MBA from IMD, the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

About Daniel Li

Daniel Li combines experience from key accounting, financing and corporate management positions in China and now leads Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd., the global mobility technology group, as CEO.

Previously Daniel has served as CFO and General Manager for various companies including Guanxi Liugong Machinery Co. Ltd, China Academy of Post and Telecommunication, Cummins Inc. and BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd.

Daniel Li holds a number of board positions notably Chairman of the Board of Lotus Group International Limited. Board member of Saxo Bank A/S, Proton Holdings Berhad and Lynk & Co Investment Co., Ltd. He is also an Independent Board member of YTO Express (International) Holdings Ltd.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Philosophy from the Renmin University of China, a Master of Management Engineering from the Beijing Institute of Machinery Industry, China and Master of Business Administration from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University, United States.

About David Richter

 

David Richter combines wide experience in high-growth technology companies, with leadership across business development, corporate development, legal, finance and product teams.

David is currently VP, Business and Corporate Development at DoorDash, a brand aiming to become the premier local commerce logistics platform.  He has worked in micro-mobility, serving as the CBO for Lime, where he was also interim CFO.

David Richter was Uber’s VP, Global Head of Business and Corporate Development and led the business development, corporate development and experiential marketing teams.

David holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Cornell University.

About David Wei

David Wei is an entrepreneurial leader with over 20 years of management experience across investment and operations in China.

In 2011, David founded Vision Knight Capital with assets under management (AUM) of over 16 billion RMB and both USD and RMB funds. Recent investments include Smoore, Pop Mart, Anker and Guoquan.

Prior to founding Vision Knight Capital, David was the CEO of Alibaba.com. Alibaba is a global leading E-commerce company, and David successfully led the listing of Alibaba Limited on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007.  Prior to this, David was CFO then CEO of B&Q China, a leading home improvement retailer in Europe and Asia. Under David’s leadership, B&Q China grew to become China ‘s largest home improvement retailer

David holds a Bachelor‘s degree in International Business Management from Shanghai International Studies University and is a graduate of the corporate finance program at the London Business School.

About Jim Rowan

Jim Rowan has served and led some of the largest electronic manufacturing and consumer technology brands in the world and has recently transferred this expertise to the automotive industry.

Jim Rowan is the incoming CEO of Volvo Car Group, one of the co-founders of Polestar and a majority shareholder.  He joined the automotive brand in 2022 from Ember Technologies, a world leader in precise temperature control, where Jim served as CEO of Ember Consumer and President of Ember Healthcare while also holding a place on the Group’s

Jim was previously CEO of consumer technology company Dyson, a business he led through significant technological, commercial and market growth, and before that Jim was the COO for Blackberry for five years.

Jim studied Mechanical & Production Engineering and Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Glasgow Caledonian University and Glasgow School of Technology, and holds an MSc in Business with Supply Chain Management and Logistics from Northumbria University.

About Karen Francis

Karen Francis has extensive operational and leadership experience as a CEO, director, strategic advisor, and investor, with a deep knowledge of corporate governance and a strong track record of successfully building businesses across multiple industries.

Karen’s career spans fast moving consumer goods , management consulting and a tenure in the automotive industry that culminated in her appointment as General Manager of the Oldsmobile division of General Motors and subsequently a VP of Ford Motor Company, where she led the corporate venture capital group.

Today Karen is Chair of both Vontier, focused on mobility and transportation businesses, and CelLink engineers of high-conductance, large area circuits for the clean power revolution. She is deeply engaged in the mobility and transportation technology ecosystem as an independent director for a number of private-equity and venture-capital funded companies in Silicon Valley. 

Karen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College, where she served on the Board of Trustees for nine years. She also serves on the Board of Positive Coaching Alliance and a Trustee of PGA Reach, the PGA of America foundation.

About Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann

Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann is well known for his achievements as an automotive industry executive, CEO and Chairman, leading brands as significant as Opel and Continental AG.

Karl Thomas built a career spanning both automotive supplier and OEM brands, in Europe and in China. He has served as Chairman of the Board and President of Opel. In addition, he was also General Motors EVP and President Europe as well as a member of the GM Executive Committee. Previously Karl Thomas was with Volkswagen AG, where he was CEO and VP of Volkswagen Group China in Beijing.

Today Dr. Neuman is founder of KTN, an organisation created to support the transformation towards E-Mobility. He consults and actively invests in companies that are looking to help shape an electric future, while also sitting on the boards of various organisations.  Notably he is Chairman of Autobrains Technologies a provider of solutions for the next generation of vehicles and mobility.

Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Dortmund.

About Polestar

Polestar was established as a new, standalone Swedish premium electric vehicle manufacturer in 2017. Founded by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding, Polestar enjoys specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefits from significant economies of scale as a result.

Polestar is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and its vehicles are currently available and on the road in markets across Europe, North America, China and Asia Pacific. By 2023, the company plans that its cars will be available in an aggregate of 30 markets. Polestar cars are currently manufactured in two facilities in China, with additional future manufacturing planned in the USA.

Polestar has produced two electric performance cars. The Polestar 1 was built between 2019 and 2021 as a low-volume electric performance hybrid GT with a carbon fiber body, 609 hp, 1,000 Nm, and an electric-only range of 124 km – the longest of any hybrid car in the world.

The Polestar 2 electric performance fastback is the company’s first fully electric, high volume car. The Polestar 2 model range includes three variants with a combination of long- and standard-range batteries as large as 78 kWh, and dual- and single-motor powertrains with as much as 300 kW / 408 hp and 660 Nm.

In the coming three years, Polestar plans to launch one new electric vehicle per year, starting with Polestar 3 in 2022 – the company’s first electric performance SUV. As the company seeks to reduce its climate impact with every new model, Polestar aims to produce a truly climate-neutral car by 2030.

For more information: https://www.polestar.com/

About Gores Guggenheim, Inc.

Gores Guggenheim, Inc. is a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of The Gores Group, LLC, founded by Alec Gores, and by an affiliate of Guggenheim Capital, LLC. Gores Guggenheim completed its initial public offering in April 2021, raising approximately USD 800 million in cash proceeds for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Gores Guggenheim’s strategy is to identify and complete business combinations with market-leading companies with strong equity stories that will benefit from the growth capital of the public equity markets and be enhanced by the experience and expertise of Gores’ and Guggenheim’s long history and track record of investing in and operating businesses.

- DisclaimerNews, data, and statements included in this release are intended exclusively for general information purposes. Talent4Boards does not guarantee that news is accurate or about the correct person and accepts neither liability for the consequences of the reader’s reliance, nor responsibility for the accuracy of the information. Nothing in this release should be considered for decisions about referred securities. Products and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.