Livia Simões really enjoys her job — you can feel it. Her role at Volkswagen Truck & Bus involves managing new products and services in Brazil, and she loves meeting new people and working with colleagues from other companies and countries.
It is clear that Livia Simões works directly at the interface — just look at her job title: the 38-year-old is a Senior Manager Sales, Marketing & After Sales at Volkswagen Truck & Bus (VWTB), which means she is responsible for launching new products and digital services of the TRATON GROUP in Brazil. Since she joined VWTB in 2004, Livia Simões has already worked as a product developer, a strategic planner for the bus product line, and, most recently, as the product planner responsible for the new heavy-duty truck series Meteor.
Sales & marketing expert
In recent years, Livia Simões and her team have worked closely together with their TRATON colleagues in Europe to tailor the products that are already available on that side of the world to the Latin American market. The modularization of commercial vehicles plays an important role in this process. “We can integrate some components directly — others have to be modified,” Livia Simões explains. “We develop new modules on the basis of existing ones, tailoring them exactly to the needs of a particular market, the characteristics of our customers’ operations, and their demands.” Together with her TRATON peers, Livia has been working on digital services with a focus on generating efficiency, profitability, and sustainability in the transportation ecosystem through data-driven intelligence. The aim is to offer complete solutions and the best experience to the customers.
Go-getter
Spontaneous phone and video calls to align on certain things are typical of Livia Simões’s job. She is constantly liaising with her colleagues and superiors. For example, the manager connects different units, say the technical departments at the Resende plant and her sales colleagues in São Paulo, is in contact with the Legal department, and shares new product ideas with colleagues from Research and Development.
Animal lover
Outside of work, Livia Simões likes to hang out with her young miniature Sheltie, Luggi. She loves animals and has had dogs since she was a little girl. There is a lot of enthusiasm in her voice when she talks about her new pet. Luggi is always by her side, for example when she goes out into the garden in the evenings to tend to her vegetable and herb beds or her orchids. Or when she visits her family on the weekends. The only place Luggi has not been yet is the office. But there is plenty there to keep Livia Simões busy — working at the interface.
