Volkswagen is rebuilding its board. The troubled shopping chief Sanz apparently comes before a recall. For CEO Müller, on the other hand, there could be a future at VW.
García Sanz (archive)
Thursday, 12.04.2018
18:28 clock
In the course of the reconstruction at Volkswagen should there be another change in top management? The long-standing director of procurement, Francisco Javier García Sanz, wants to give up his post, reports the news agency dpa, citing insiders. According to Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will move up to the Board of Management.
Sanz has been a member of the VW Board of Directors since 2001 and also serves as the chairman of the supervisory board of Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg. The 60-year-old was according to SPIEGEL information in the group strongly under pressure, Although he was able to successfully negotiate with the US authorities in the exhaust scandal, but he is also responsible for massive problems with the supplier Prevent – and should have accounted for generous expenses.
The Supervisory Board of Volkswagen wants to reorganize the world’s biggest carmaker. Here, the former VW brand leader Herbert Diess is likely to succeed the incumbent CEO Matthias Müller be determined, As the “Handelsblatt” reported, but he should remain until 2020 as a board in the service of VW and receive just under 20 million euros.
“A contract annulment would make no sense, since the compensation would be as high as the current contract,” said an unspecified insider the sheet. There is no confirmation for this information about Matthias Müller. It is clearer that Gunnar Kilian, until now secretary general in the works council, will become the personnel director and follow Karlheinz Blessing.
According to SPIEGEL information, the individual brands are to be divided into four groups – for volume models (core brand VW, Skoda, Seat), luxury-class cars (Audi), sports cars under the project name “Super-Premium” (Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini) and commercial vehicles. This is how the work in the huge corporation should become more efficient.
For heavy commercial vehicles, in turn, according to Group sources, a move of the administrative center from Braunschweig to Munich is due. Also an IPO of the division with Scania and MAN is considered possible. Lower Saxony’s SPD Prime Minister Stephan Weil had made a strong case for the division in Braunschweig. Munich is already home to MAN.
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this text it was said that VW boss Müller could get measured against his annual salary just under 20 million euros annually. In fact, the sum does not relate to a possible annual earnings, but to the entire remaining contract term until 2020. We have corrected the claim.