Volkswagen once again expands the power of its new top manager Markus Duesmann (51). The Volkswagen development board and Audi boss will in future also be responsible for the increasingly important software development throughout the group, as Europe’s largest car maker announced on Wednesday. Under Duesmann, the previous BMW manager Dirk Hilgenberg takes over from Christian Senger (46), head of the software department. Senger’s dismissal was already became known a few days ago. According to the information from Wednesday, he will remain in the group, but has so far no new tasks.
Volkswagen had rotated heavily in many top positions in the past few days. In addition to Senger Truck boss Andreas Renschler (62) and Bernhard Maier (60), Head of the subsidiary Skoda, leave their posts. In June, CEO Herbert Diess (61) handed over the management of the VW core brand to Ralf Brandstätter (51). The top management of Diess and the powerful works council chief Bernd Osterloh (63) are trying to to smooth out the waves of the past few months.
Since taking office as Audi boss and Volkswagen Group board member in April, Duesmann has rapidly expanded his power. At Audi, he also took over the development department and responsibility for business in China, the premium brand’s largest market. Duesmann came like CEO Diess and now his new employee Hilgenberg from rival BMW. The manager has been given the task of realigning the Ingolstadt-based car scandal and filling the old Audi slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik” with new life.
“In a few years, the operating system of a car and its networking with a highly secure data cloud will make the decisive difference,” Duesmann explained. That is why the so-called car software organization is being strengthened as a unit for all brands of the Volkswagen Group. The unit, which started at the beginning of July, should bundle the work of around 5,000 specialists by the end of the year. As a premium brand, Audi should play a pioneering role in the group. Audi should not only house the center of the software organization at the company’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, but also use the VW.OS operating system with all functions for the first time.
While Duesmann has to advance future topics such as software, electric drives and autonomous driving, in September the process against his predecessor Rupert Stadler (57) in Munich starts a further stage in dealing with the scandal regarding exhaust gas manipulation in diesel engines.