Daimler is streamlining the management structure at Mercedes-Benz Cars with a mix of new roles and reassigned responsibilities which will take effect on 1 April, 2020.
Wolf-Dieter Kurz is to head product strategy and steering for Mercedes-Benz Cars while Ola Kaellenius also assumes overall responsibility for vans.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Group head of R&D, procurement and supplier quality, Markus Schaefer, takes up a new role as chief operating officer of Daimler and also run Mercedes-Benz Cars.
Harald Wilhelm, currently head of finance & controlling and Daimler Mobility, also becomes Mercedes chief financial officer while Frank Lindenberg, the management board member for finance & controlling is leaving the automaker.
"The transformation of the auto industry is a great opportunity to further develop our successful business model. That is why we are setting up processes and management structures for the future," said Kaellenius, who currently is management board chairman.
Kaellenius taking full responsibility for vans leaves Wilfried Porth free to concentrate on what the automaker terms "the comprehensive personnel restructuring measures and the transformation challenges in the human resources area".
Schaefer's additional role makes him responsible for production of Mercedes-Benz cars.
The company said merging Daimler and Mercedes-Benz financial control under Wilhelm means "redundancies will be reduced, the efficiency of the organisation increased and Daimler as a whole made more flexible".
Current CFO Lindenberg departs on 31 March, 2020 "by amicable mutual consent".
The company praised his work which had brought "significant increases in efficiency" and "the revision of our Mercedes business strategy".
