Herbert Diess resigns as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. The company surprisingly announced on Friday evening that the 63-year-old had agreed with the supervisory board to leave on September 1. The successor will be Porsche boss Oliver Blume. The decision was made “by mutual consent,” it said in Wolfsburg.
“Dr. Oliver Blume will assume the role of CEO and at the same time his role as CEO of Dr. Ing. hc F. Porsche AG,” the group said in a statement to the financial markets. At a meeting, the inspectors also decided that VW CFO Arno Antlitz would support the previous Porsche driver Blume “in the daily operations”.
Recently several problems at VW
Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Pötsch thanked Diess. During his time as CEO of both the Volkswagen brand and the Group, he played a key role in driving the company’s transformation. Diess pushed the conversion of VW to e-mobility considerably. Recently, however, there have been a number of problems, especially with the slow and increasingly expensive development of internal software and IT systems.
Blume has long been considered a possible successor to Diess. His name was mentioned several times behind the scenes when a conflict between the VW boss and the powerful works council about possible new austerity programs escalated last year. Earlier there had been fierce differences of opinion with parts of the supervisory board about the further strategy and about a possible drastic job loss at Europe’s largest car manufacturer.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
