Following the resignation of Martin Winterkorn in the wake of the massive “dieselgate” uncovered in the US, Volkswagen AG has appointed Matthias Muller as their new CEO. This was decided by the Supervisory Board at its meeting in Wolfsburg on Friday. Muller is currently Chairman of Porsche AG in Stuttgart. He will continue in this function until a successor has been found.
The interim Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, Berthold Huber, said: “Matthias Muller is a person of great strategic, entrepreneurial and social competence. He knows the Group andits brands well and can immediately engage in his new task with full energy. We expressly value hiscritical and constructive approach.”
Bernd Osterloh,Chairman of the Group Works Council, commented: “When it comes to leadership appointments the Volkswagen Group does not need hasty decisions. We know and value Matthias Muller for his determination and decisiveness. He does not work on his own, rather he is a team player.That is what Volkswagen needs now.”
Matthias Muller said:“My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation. Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry. If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before.”
The Volkswagen dieselgate is a massive one and has reportedly affected 5M vehicles in the US. For those who don’t know, it was recently discovered that Volkswagen rigged the emission tests in the US using a software cheat which detected that the vehicle is being tested and altered the emissions. Volkswagen has been slapped a 18 billion dollar fine in the US.