Geely Names Lotus Board Members

Subsequent to the announcement of the board of directors nominees and executives for Proton, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group also confirmed the same for British sports car maker, Lotus following the completion of the purchase transaction. Geely Holding (via its subsidiary Geely International (Hong Kong) Ltd) now owns a 51% stake in Lotus Advance Technologies Sdn Bhd, with the remainder going to Etika Automotive Sdn Bhd, a company linked to Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary.

With that, Geely has name 3 appointees to the board of Lotus – Mr. Daniel Donghui Li, Mr. Feng Qing Feng and Dr. Nathan Yu Ning. If their names sound familiar, it’s because they also sit on Proton’s board. Mr. Li, who is Geely Holding’s Executive Vice President and CFO, will be the new Chairman of the Lotus board. Mr. Feng is Geely Auto Vice President and CTO, and Dr. Yu is Vice President of International Business and Executive Advisor to the President at Geely Holding.

Etika’s appointee to the Lotus board is Dato’ Sharil Tarmizi, a corporate consultant and a long term supporter of technology companies. The second appointee will be announced later.

Mr. Jean-Marc Gales will continue in his role at Lotus as the Chief Executive Officer since joining the company in 2014.

According to reports, Lotus has already entered into a positive cash flow situation with year-on-year sales up by 10% in the first half of 2017. With the introduction of new models over the course of this year, including the Evora GT430, the fastest Lotus ever made, and with further expansion into the US and Chinese markets, Geely Holding is confident that Lotus will continue to excel.

“With the transaction completion we now look forward to working with our partners to develop the Lotus brand into a globally competitive brand and a well recognized leader in the sports car market. We are extremely confident that Lotus will go above and beyond the expectations of the automotive industry and consumer base in the near future,” Mr. Daniel Li commented.

Mr. Jean-Marc Gales said, “Following a successful business turnaround, the Lotus brand has never been in a stronger position and we are now perfectly positioned for growth. We are producing the best cars in the company’s history and are currently developing next generation of sports luxury vehicles which will continue to demonstrate the Lotus brand values of class-leading vehicle dynamics, light weighting, styling and aerodynamics by leveraging Geely Holding’s global strengths and resources.”