New UD Trucks Managing Director For Hub Malaysia & Oceania Introduced At KLIMS 2018
The new UD Trucks Managing Director for Hub Malaysia & Oceania, Group Trucks Asia and JVs, Steve Hedouin, was formally introduced to the media at KLIMS 2018. Steve, who officially assumed his role on 1 October 2018, will be based in Malaysia, replacing Singapore-based Filip Van den Heede.
Steve first joined Volvo Trucks in France in 2008 and through the years, has gained working experience in emerging markets. Prior to this latest appointment, Steve was based in Dubai, UAE as the Vice President for Volvo Bus Cluster Africa, Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). And before that, he was the General Manager for Volvo Bus operations in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore). Both these positions required results in customer success and bottom-line growth for Volvo Bus.
In Malaysia, Steve will be responsible for driving UD Trucks’ business in partnership with its sole distributor, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment (TCIE), as well as execute and follow up on strategies and activities in the assigned markets. The Hub Malaysia & Oceania cluster includes the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand; Malaysia is one of the biggest in this cluster in terms of growth and volume for the brand. He will also be exploring possible expansion into new markets in Asia.
“In the last few years, UD Trucks has seen tremendous growth especially in Southeast Asia, in some key markets like Malaysia. The first few interactions I had with customers here showed that they are in favour of UD Trucks because of the efficiency and business profitability they experienced by using our trucks and services. I strongly believe that the combination of the Japanese heritage of UD Trucks, the local ‘gemba’ spirit where value is created and the strong support from the Volvo Group, UD Trucks can definitely bring customers’ success to the next level. Malaysia is a market where UD Trucks has historically been strong, where it has since long ago earned customers’ trust across the nation,” commented Steve.
