Besides appointing Matthias Müller as group CEO, VW has announced important management changes at its subsidiaries Skoda and Seat too.
As of November 1, the Skoda brand will be headed by Bernhard Maier, current Board Member for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG. Maier will replace current CEO Winfried Vahland, who will take over all responsibility for VW Group’s newly formed North American Region (NAR).
A similar management reshuffle was announced for the SEAT brand, with Luca de Meo to be appointed as new Chairman of the Executive Committee of SEAT starting November 1.
The Italian, who is the current Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Audi AG, will replace Jürgen Stackmann, appointed to the position of Vice-President of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales of Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.
We don’t know whether these appointments have anything to do with the “Dieselgate” scandal, but reports have emerged today about VW suspending all three R&D chiefs from the VW, Audi and Porsche brands.
According to Reuters, which cites sources familiar with the matter, VW’s supervisory board agreed to put a number of employees on leave until details of the emissions cheating scandal were cleared up. While no names were provided, everyone knows who are the R&D bosses at the three brands: Ulrich Hackenberg (Audi), Heinz-Jakob Neusser (VW) and Wolfgang Hatz (Porsche).
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