VW poaches new boss from BMW

The puzzling question of which player within the Volkswagen Group would succeed 67-year-old Volkswagen brand boss Dr Martin Winterkorn has been settled.

And it won’t be from Volkswagen. Instead, Volkswagen has launched its second raid on another German car company’s senior ranks in a year, tempting its board member for development, Herbert Diess, to run the Volkswagen brand.

While Dr Winterkorn will remain Chief Executive Officer of the Volkswagen Group, the 56-year-old Diess will take over a board position and the chairmanship of the Volkswagen brand from October 1 next year.

"With Herbert Diess we will be welcoming an outstanding personality and one of the most capable minds in the automotive industry to our company. At the same time, this step puts the executive management of both the group and the brand on an even broader footing," Winterkorn said in a statement yesterday.

Diess’s move comes on the same day that BMW announced its own management shakeup. Diess was under consideration to replace outgoing BMW CEO, Norbert Reithofer, but was overlooked for the company’s 49-year-old production chief, Harald Krueger.

Reithofer, who has headed BMW since 2006, will replace Joachim Milberg as the Chairman of its Supervisory Board in May next year, with Krueger taking the CEO desk at the same time.

Diess has a background in mechanical engineering and worked at Robert Bosch before joining BMW in 1996 and serving on its board since October, 2007. He has had board positions in both purchasing and development.

His relative youth also positions him as a potential successor to Dr Winterkorn as the VW Group CEO when he eventually retires, presumably after the introduction of the Mk8 Golf.

Earlier this year, Volkswagen lured the head of Daimler’s truck division, Andreas Renschler, to head up its own truck operation from February 1 next year. It has also poached powertrain development boss, Friedrich Eichler, away from Daimler nearly two years ago.

Klaus Froehlich, who joined BMW in 1987 and was formerly in charge of its small and medium cars, will replace Diess with immediate effect.