Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess surprisingly leaves the Wolfsburg car manufacturer at the end of August. His successor will be the head of the sports car subsidiary Porsche AG, Oliver Blume, VW announced.
Blume is to continue in his current position in parallel. He is currently working on an IPO for Porsche AG, which should be completed in the fall. At VW, 54-year-old Blume will be supported operationally by Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz, who will also be responsible for day-to-day business in the future, according to a press release from the group.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Pötsch thanked Diess. “During his time as CEO of the Volkswagen brand and of the Group, he played a key role in driving forward the transformation of the company.” Diess pushed the conversion of VW in e-mobility significantly. However, there have also been a number of problems recently, especially with the sluggish and increasingly expensive development of proprietary software and IT systems.
Blume had long been considered a possible successor to Diess. His name had been mentioned several times behind the scenes when a conflict between the VW boss and the powerful works council over possible new austerity programs escalated last year. Even before that, there had been violent differences of opinion with parts of the supervisory board about the further strategy and about a possible drastic job cut at Europe’s largest car manufacturer.
The former BMW manager Diess has been in charge of VW since April 2018. The company announced that the supervisory board had reached an amicable agreement with the 63-year-old.