Volkswagen's Compliance Chief Splits Because Compliance Means Different Things To Different People, Apparently
Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, Volkswagen Group AG’s compliance chief, is leaving the company after disputes with VW’s senior management regarding her responsibilities. Those duties primarily revolve around ensuring the automaker adheres to regulatory requirements — something Volkswagen has had a difficult time with as of late.
After only a year with the company, Volkswagen confirmed Hohmann-Dennhardt will be leaving at the end of this month. According to an official statement, her exodus is “due to differences in their understanding of responsibilities and future operating structures within the function she leads.”
Considering her role on the supervisory board consisted wholly of seeing Volkswagen through the devastating emissions crisis while improving its image and ensuring it did not commit anymore egregious unlawful acts, you have to wonder what those differences in understanding entailed.
Earlier this month, VW agreed to pay $4.3 billion in civil and criminal fines — the largest U.S. criminal fine ever imposed on an automaker — due to its nearly 10 years’ worth of diesel emission testing fraud. In October, it reached a $14.7 billion settlement with affected U.S. buyers of those cars. Volkswagen paid out another $1.2 billion to American dealerships before the company settled things in December with diesel owners in Canada.
Dr. Hohmann-Dennhardt was appointed to Volkswagen AG’s management board with a central responsibility for its “integrity and legal affairs” on January 1, 2016. The supervisory board named Hiltrud Werner, head of group auditing, as Hohmann-Dennhardt’s replacement.
“Volkswagen will continue to press forward with changes to its way of thinking and working. The Group has substantially elevated its commitment to working ethically and with integrity and is decentralizing its organization,” the company stated.
[Image: Volkswagen Group]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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"Sign of times: in olden days she would do whatever Sturmbannführer have ordered her to do" go get me some coffee, sweetie, that's a good girl. I'll see you later for some dic-tation.
They would have been smart to offer her a different assignment for a while in order to prevent this PR disaster. Someone else could have eased in to the position, and she could have quietly left "to pursue other interests" a few months later.