The press release that was sent out by the Volkswagen Group on Wednesday evening at 7:46 p.m. comes suddenly, harshly – but it seems to be consistent in a certain way: “The Traton SE supervisory board today decided on two changes in the management board at Traton” , is it[calledOverallbossMatthiasGründlerandCFOChristianSchulzwillthereforeleavebeforetheendofthecontractthisThursday
Traton is the holding company in which the heavy trucks at Volkswagen are bundled. On the one hand there is the Munich truck manufacturer MAN, who is currently busy with plant closings and job cuts. On the other hand, there is the Swedish truck manufacturer Scania, this shining premium brand. And recently there was also the American manufacturer Navistar. Three different companies and cultures, above that the holding company with the name of art and finally the main owner Volkswagen from Wolfsburg. All of this is not easy to organize, especially in times of upheaval: trucks also have to convert their drives, from diesel to electricity and hydrogen, as is the case with cars. Digitization is making its way there, too, and there is a lack of computer chips. Gründler, 56, had everything under control, according to reports, and it seemed to be fun. Incidentally, he only came a year ago – a little punch line – because his predecessor Andreas Renschler had thrown out at that time, probably also out of frustration at too much influence from Wolfsburg.
But then the circumstances and mood also changed at Gründler this spring. On May 1st, he was given a colleague from the Board of Management: Bernd Osterloh. Not only that Gründler hadn’t asked for this – well – reinforcement. No, he had been presented with a fait accompli by the Traton board of directors, according to all you can hear. Osterloh, you have to know, was head of the Volkswagen works council for over a decade, was known as the “King of Wolfsburg” – and at the end of his career he was tinkered with this nicely endowed position at Traton. The powerful and self-confident ex-works council is now head of human resources, which wasn’t really necessary in a holding company.
Shortly after Osterloh’s assumption of office, Gründler described how close the cooperation was, or not, in an interview with SZ: “I assume,” said Gründler about his new board colleague, will think about his strategy for the next 100 days. ” These are words that express the greatest possible distance – and in which one could read how disavowed Gründler felt by the supervisory board around Hans Dieter Pötsch. He made it clear whose well-being is most important at Volkswagen. In this respect, it is more likely that Gründler had enough – even if it is not proven.
After all, they all made the farewell very friendly: Pötsch thanked Gründler “expressly” in the farewell message. He too is given a few lines of quotation and wishes the whole group “good luck”. His successor will be Scania boss Christian Levin, who is to lead both companies in personal union. Traton manager Annette Danielski becomes CFO.