As expected, Herbert Diess has been confirmed as new chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group as part of a plan to speed up change in the vast company and make it more efficient. He replaces Matthias Mueller.
There will also be a reorganisation of the sprawling group into six business units. A meeting of the VW Group supervisory board planned for tomorrow (April 13) was brought forward to this afternoon (April 12) after a reorganisation at the top had been signalled in a somewhat cryptic press release from Wolfsburg earlier this week.
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In a statement, Volkswagen said the group will be organised into six business areas and the China region. It also signalled ‘planned preparation for capital market readiness of Truck & Bus’.
The company also confirmed speculation that works council executive Gunnar Kilian would be appointed to the Group Board of Management for Human Resources. He takes over the post from Dr. Karlheinz Blessing, who served in the role from the beginning of 2016. The move is aimed at smoothing potentially turbulent industrial relations as Diess embarks on a strategy for the group that may meet resistance from workers in Germany.
See also: COMMENT – VW CEO can’t hold back desire for faster change
VW to give workers a board seat – report
