Personnel Carousel At Porsche: Winterkorn's Boys Take Over
Management changes at Porsche. CEO Macht will be disempowered, or “entmachtet”, as the Germans say. „It becomes clear that Winterkorn will change out the top management at Porsche and will replace it step by step with confidantes from his inner circle,” writes Automobilwoche [sub].
Macht, a protégé of disgraced Wendelin Wiedeking, won’t be sent to Siberia. He will be “nach oben entfernt,” as the saying goes in Wolfsburg. He will be removed upwards. His new job will be production chief of all of Volkswagen, which gets him a seat on the Volkswagen management board. It’s not as glamorous as being chief of Porsche, and it’s a dangerous job, especially when VW sits at the bottom of the J.D.Power list.
Volkswagen’s current production chief, Walter Heizmann, will lead the truck business of VW, if Automobilwoche has it right. That comes close to Siberia by Wolfsburg standards.
And who will be the new Porsche chief, you ask? Good question. Automobilwoche says it might be Matthias Müller. The relatively luster-free chief of product strategy at Volkswagen is a member if the Winterkorn tribe. Three years ago, he followed Winterkorn from Audi.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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