Alejandro (Alex) Castro Pérez

Alex is currently Global Head of Retail Energy Solutions Business at Volvo Cars. He is also an active board member and advisor, investing in and engaging with organisations in different sectors driving entrepreneurship, sustainable growth and positive impact. He brings 20 years of executive leadership experience that ranges from heading business units and global functions for top multinationals in several industries, to scaling impactful start-ups across sectors. Previous roles include Global Head of New Business & Innovation Area at IKEA, were he led the creation, incubation, and deployment of new business platforms and innovative solutions in strategic areas (eg. circular & digital transformation, secondhand marketplace, b2b services). And Global Head of IKEA Energy Services, delivering a new growth engine and business area for the Group. Making key contributions to the strategic corporate development agenda, and strengthening the position of IKEA as a global leader in sustainability, innovation and cleantech solutions.

Before IKEA, he held various global leadership roles in Supply Chain, R&D and Engineering functions, delivering positive impact for leading multinationals in Food Processing & Packaging (Tetra Pak), Medical Device & Healthcare (Coloplast) and Automotive (Rotrex – Maersk) industries. And co-founded a leader in Industrial Insulation in Central America (Intermica).

Alex holds Mechanical and Industrial Engineering degrees from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) and Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (Denmark), an Executive MBA with specializations in sustainability and innovation from University of Reading, University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School respectively (UK & US). He has Guatemalan, Spanish and Swedish nationalities and lives with his family in Malmö, Sweden.