The Volkswagen Group will restructure the Board Procurement functions on the Group level and at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars and MAN Truck & Bus brands at the start of the year. Effective January 1, 2023, Dirk Große-Loheide will assume responsibility for Group Procurement and will become a member of the Extended Executive Committee in which the Group bundles the horizontal functions procurement and production, quality, sales, design and development. At the same time, he will also become the Board member responsible for Procurement at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand. Große-Loheide will succeed Murat Aksel, who will join the Board of Management of MAN Truck & Bus effective January 1, 2023. Murat Aksel will assume responsibility for Procurement on the Board of Management of MAN Truck & Bus from Stefan Gramse, who will move to a Group function at Volkswagen. At Audi, Große-Loheide will continue to oversee the Board Procurement functions and IT on a temporary basis until his successor is appointed. The restructuring at the Group will bolster its procurement operation in volatile times and will position it to tackle the challenges of the future.
CEO Oliver Blume, the CEO of Volkswagen, said: “For a global company like Volkswagen maintaining robust supply chains is a critical factor in our success. This restructuring will enable us to strengthen the procurement function both on the Group level and in two core areas: Two top managers with crisis experience, Dirk Große-Loheide and Murat Aksel, will assume responsibility for this central job at the volume brand Volkswagen Passenger Cars and MAN Truck & Bus. By taking this step, we will ensure that the strategic restructuring of Group procurement will rapidly move forward.”
Murat Aksel had been a member of the Group Board of Management and the Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) since January 2021. In these positions, he assumed overall responsibility in the Volkswagen Group for the management of material procurement and the provision of services. He was also responsible for Procurement on the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand. In the Extended Executive Committee created in September 2022, Murat Aksel, together with his team, managed the procurement organizations of the brands and regions. Murat Aksel will take over the Board of Management position at MAN Truck & Bus from Stefan Gramse, who will assume a central function in the Volkswagen Group. For Murat Aksel, the move to MAN Truck & Bus also marks the return to the south of Germany, his professional home for many years, where he had worked, among other things, in executive positions for the BMW Group between 2009 and 2017.
“On behalf of the entire Board of Management, I would like to thank Murat Aksel for his hard work in Group Procurement and at the Volkswagen brand;” Oliver Blume said. “During exceptionally challenging times, Murat has laid the foundation for the strategic realignment of Procurement. He will now continue to play this role at MAN Truck & Bus. In the process, he can draw on more than 25 years of experience in international supply chain management in the automotive industry.”
One of the key tasks assigned to Murat Aksel at MAN Truck & Bus will be to further stabilize the company’s supply chains, which continue to be strained during the continuing ramp-up of truck production for heavy commercial vehicles, Oliver Blume added. The Board of Management also thanked Stefan Gramse for his accomplishments. Gramse restructured Procurement at MAN Truck & Bus, generated important momentum for the company’s transformation and led both the Covid-19 crisis team and the Task Force Ukraine at MAN.
Dirk Große-Loheide previously oversaw the Board Procurement functions at the brand Volkswagen Passenger Cars between October 2019 and April 2020. In his future roles as the Board member responsible for Procurement at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand and as a member of the Extended Executive Committee, he will also oversee the procurement organizations of the brands and regions. At Audi, Große-Loheide will continue to oversee the Board Procurement functions and IT on a temporary basis until his successor is appointed.
“In Dirk Große-Loheide, we have won another procurement expert with international experience for this strategic key function in the brand and in the Group. He had previously demonstrated his ability to manage Procurement effectively at Audi, the Volkswagen brand and at Group level. His task will be to further stabilize the supply chains in close collaboration with suppliers to allow us to deliver products to our customers as quickly as possible. He will rigorously continue on the path Murat Aksel and his team have embarked on, which involves strategically preparing the procurement function as a whole in the brands and regions for the challenges of the future,” Oliver Blume said.
Dirk Große-Loheide began his career at Volkswagen in machinery procurement in 1990 in Wolfsburg. He assumed the position of Board Member for Procurement and Production at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hanover in 2007. Große-Loheide joined MAN Truck & Bus in 2017 as the Board Member for Procurement and simultaneously became Head of Procurement for the company that is known today as the TRATON GROUP, which comprises MAN as well as the Scania and Volkswagen Truck & Bus brands. He became Head of Group Operations Procurement in April 2019. On October 1, 2019, he became a member of the Brand Board of Management for Volkswagen Passenger Cars, overseeing Procurement functions. On April 1, 2020, he also assumed responsibility for the Board Procurement functions and IT at Audi.