What's the news?
As was suggested, during the week of revelations in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, Matthias Müller has been appointed CEO of the Volkswagen Group, replacing Dr. Martin Winterkorn.
Müller was tipped early on as a suitable candidate to take over the position even before Winterkorn had been forced to resign following the scandal. Müller had previously been the preferred choice to succeed Dr. Ferdinand Piech during his power struggle with Winterkorn earlier this year, although the Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of the Volkswagen Group voted in favour of Winterkorn.
Following his appointment, Müller made this statement: "My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group - by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation. Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry. If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before."
Müller is currently the Chairman of Porsche AG and will remain in this role until a suitable successor is agreed upon by the Board of Management at Porsche. It has been suggested that the leading contender is Dr. Oliver Blume, who is currently in charge of Production and Logistics at Porsche AG.
Anything else?
The appointment of Matthias Müller as CEO was just the tip of the iceberg in a day that saw a significant reorganisation of the Volkswagen Group. A new management structure will see the Group be divided into four distinct divisions; Volume, Premium, Sport and Commercial. Under the Volume division will fall the SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. The Premium division will include Audi, Ducati and Lamborghini, while Bentley, Bugatti and Porsche will fall under the Sport division and will have responsibility for sportscar and mid-engined platform development. The Commercial division will include Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, truck operations including MAN and Scania along with Power Engineering and Financial Services.
A reorganisation of the Volkswagen Group's activities in North America was also announced, with Canada, Mexico and the USA now being combined into one North America region. Due to come into effect on 1 November this year, it will be headed up by Dr. Winfried Vahland, currently Chairman of the Board of Directors at Škoda.
Replacing Vahland at Škoda will be Bernhard Maier, who moves from his current position in charge of Sales and Marketing of Porsche AG. Somewhat surprisingly, and in contrast to initial reports, Michael Horn, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America will remain in his role.
Jürgen Stackmann moves from his role as Chairman of SEAT to replace Christian Klinger on the Volkswagen Board of Management. Klinger has left his role as Head of Sales and Marketing for Volkswagen, with the company citing the reason as "part of long-term planned structural changes and as a result of differences with regard to business strategy". New CEO, Müller, will head the Sales department in an interim capacity, for now.
Replacing Stackmann at the top of SEAT will be current Head of Sales and Marketing for Audi, Luca de Meo. All of these personnel changes are due to come into effect from 1 October 2015.
Interestingly, two of the big names expected to be dismissed, Wolfgang Hatz and Ulrich Hackenberg are believed to remain employed by Volkswagen Group but are on leave until further notice according in sources in Wolfsburg.