Volkswagen Group’s head of compliance, Dr Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, is leaving her post after disagreements with senior managers at the crisis-hit company.
VW said she is leaving by mutual agreement following the conclusion of settlements with the US authorities in connection with the diesel emissions issue. The company said it “thanks Dr. Hohmann-Dennhardt for contributing her outstanding expertise and experience to achieving important milestones, and for supporting the Group in revising its internal guidelines and procedures”.
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VW also said that she is leaving due to ‘differences in their understanding of responsibilities and future operating structures within the function she leads’.
In the face of the ‘dieselgate’ issue, Dr. Hohmann-Dennhardt was appointed Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG with responsibility for ‘Integrity and Legal Affairs’ on January 1 of last year. During the past twelve months, VW said she has also launched improvements in the group’s compliance structures. Furthermore, a campaign to foster the culture of integrity within the group was rolled out under her leadership.
VW has already appointed a successor – Ms. Hiltrud Werner. She has been Head of Volkswagen Group Auditing since January 1, 2016. Hiltrud Werner is an economics graduate; before moving to the Volkswagen Group she held the post of Chief Audit Executive at ZF Friedrichshafen AG. After graduating, she began her career in 1991 as a project manager for process optimisation at Softlab GmbH. She moved to BMW AG in 1996, where she held the post of Head of Financial Services in the Corporate Audit function. She became Senior Vice President Corporate Audit at MAN SE in 2011, and moved to ZF Friedrichshafen in 2014.
Volkswagen said in a statement that it “will continue to press forward with changes to its way of thinking and working”. The company claims it has “substantially elevated its commitment to working ethically and with integrity and is decentralising its organization. Brands and regions already have much more autonomy with regard to their operating business”. These and other initiatives, it said, are part of a broader transformation of Volkswagen’s corporate culture to create a more entrepreneurial and international organisation.
