Ex-CEO slams Volvo Cars over sacking

Stefan Jacoby, the ex-CEO of Volvo Cars, has admitted to feeling cheated by his old company after they fired him last year halfway through his recovery from a stroke.

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Jacoby, who was was the company head until October last year, claimed that he had no warning he would be fired by the Swedish company.

“I was shocked. After everything I did over two years, it felt like I’d been tossed out like rubbish. It was really, really tough,” he told the Dagens Industri newspaper (DI).

“There was surely a more elegant way to handle it.”

Jacoby suffered a stroke at home mid-September, ending up at the Sahlgrenska Hospital, although he later claimed it was only minor.

In October, Håkan Samuelsson, former chairman of German truck maker MAN, was named the new Volvo Cars CEO.

Jacoby said it felt “very strange” to be informed of his redundancy when he was in the middle of his sickness.

“I was kicked out right in the middle of the game. And to this day I’ve still not had any explanation of why it happened. You can only speculate with these things,” he said.

The TT news agency announced in November that according to company policy, Jacoby was entitled to some 8 million kronor ($1.2 million) in severance pay.

Despite being fired from the company, Jacoby admits that it opened a new door in his life.

“I really loved my job, maybe too much. It was a shock, but on the other hand, it gave me a chance to do something new.”

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