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 1st. Successor is to be Porsche boss Oliver Blume. The decision was made "mutually", it said in Wolfsburg.
"Dr. Oliver Blume will take over as CEO and will also continue in his role as CEO of Dr. Ing. h.c. 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 day-to-day operations".
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 recently been a number of problems, especially with the sluggish and increasingly expensive development of in-house 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.
