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Diess resigns as head of VW – Porsche manager Blume becomes his successor
Status: 07/22/2022 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Diess resigns – Porsche manager Blume becomes his successor
Herbert Diess resigns as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. The company surprisingly announced Friday night that the 63-year-old had agreed with the supervisory board to leave on Sept. The successor will be Porsche boss Oliver Blume.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess surprisingly leaves the Wolfsburg automaker at the end of August. His successor will be the head of sports car subsidiary Porsche AG, Oliver Blume, VW announced on Friday.
Herbert Diess resigns as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. The company surprisingly announced Friday night that the 63-year-old had agreed with the supervisory board to leave on Sept. The successor will be Porsche boss Oliver Blume. The decision was made “by consensus,” he said in Wolfsburg.
According to insiders, the impetus for change at the top of Volkswagen came from the Porsche and Piech owning families. Family representatives saw the need for a change in leadership, two people familiar with the supervisory board’s deliberations told Portal news agency on Friday.
VW’s supervisory board decided to replace CEO Herbert Diess with Porsche boss Oliver Blume on September 1. There was no specific reason, but problems piled up. In the end, the decision was unanimous. This was also blamed for the problems at software subsidiary Cariad, he said in circles.
VW top manager Schäfer in an interview
Automotive specialist Ferdinand Dudenhöffer told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” about the Cariad cause on Friday night: “Cariad has probably brought a lot of problems and challenges to the VW Group and the individual brands. a lot of money.”
Blume will remain head of Porsche at the same time
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Diess’ successor, Blume, is expected to continue in his current position. He is currently working on an IPO for Porsche AG, which is expected to take place in the fall. Blume announced that he wanted to continue managing Porsche for the long term, despite his new position. The Porsche team can count on that, Blume said Friday night. This also applies after a possible IPO. “We have successfully positioned Porsche technologically, economically and culturally,” said Blume.
At VW, Blume, 54, will be operationally supported by CFO Arno Antlitz, who will also be responsible for day-to-day business going forward.
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Family spokesman Wolfgang Porsche and Hans Michel Piëch said on Friday in a statement from VW’s Porsche SE holding that Blume has the support of the owner families. “Oliver Blume has enjoyed our confidence expressed for many years,” explained Porsche and Piëch. “We are convinced that he will continue the successful development of the Volkswagen Group and will vigorously implement the necessary measures,” they said.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Diess has advanced “significantly” in the transformation of the company
The chairman of the Supervisory Board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, thanked Diess. During his time as CEO of the Volkswagen brand and the Group, he played a key role in advancing the company’s transformation.
Diess significantly boosted VW’s conversion to electric mobility. However, there have also been a number of problems recently, especially with the slow and increasingly expensive development of proprietary software and IT systems. Former BMW manager Diess has led VW since April 2018.
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Blume had long been considered a possible successor to Diess. His name was mentioned several times behind the scenes as a conflict between the VW boss and the powerful works council over potential new austerity programs escalated last year.
Even before that, there were violent differences of opinion with parts of the supervisory board over future strategy and a possible drastic job cut at Europe’s biggest automaker.
Employees welcome the change on the executive floor
Volkswagen’s surprising boss change receives approval from the automaker’s employee representatives. In addition to its role as a technological favorite, Volkswagen must also do justice to its role as a social role model, explained IG Metall boss and Volkswagen supervisory vice-chairman Jörg Hofmann on Friday. “The decisions made today allow us to keep the momentum going and use the advantage we have.”
The head of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, explained that job security and profitability must remain equal corporate goals. “All colleagues have to be taken. Today’s decisions contribute to that.”
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