Audi’s management reshuffle means that the Volkswagen Group is taking control over what is perceived as a brand that is acting too independently and too timidly at the same time.
Board members Michael Dick and Peter Schwarzenbauer are leaving the company. Dick, who was responsible for research and development, is retiring at 60. Audi’s standard retirement age is 65, and the Volkswagen Group is known for keeping executives far beyond that age if they seem vital to the company’s future. Former Porsche R&D chief and current Bentley and Bugatti CEO, Wolfgang Dürheimer, 53, will replace Dick.
Dick has not been easy to work with. He took fire for putting a rotary engine range extender into the A1 e-tron, instead of choosing from the VW Group’s parts bin. His venture into uncharted territory with the Urban Concept was unloved by VW’s senior management. Dürheimer could be easier to work with; he is open to the requests of marketing and will be a driving force behind the standardization of components across platforms. What we won’t see is a more cautious approach towards electric mobility. Dürheimer is driven by electrics and hybrids—the Porsche 918 was his pet project.
Bentley and Bugatti will be in good hands with Wolfgang Schreiber, who worked for Bugatti before and knows performance cars inside and out. He will push forward with Dürheimer’s Bentley SUV, first shown in Geneva—rest assured, it will look a lot different from the EXP 9 F we’ve seen.
Schwarzenbauer, 52, did not get along with the VW Group’s marketing chief Christian Klingler; details on their relationship remain foggy. He will be replaced by Luca de Meo, 44, who was responsible for the VW Group’s marketing. In his new position with Audi, he will receive additional responsibility for sales, in addition to marketing. De Meo is a car lover who has worked for Renault, Toyota, Lancia, and for Fiat Group (Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia and Maserati) in the past.
Audi also has lost its North American president, Johan de Nysschen. De Nysschen has been hired to head up Infiniti effective July 1. The announcement of his departure is purely coincidental in relation to the changeover in Europe. In fact, the VW Group was surprised by his departure and his replacement is not known yet; it’s possible interim boss Mark Del Rosso could be given the job permanently. Audi desperately needs to find a suitable successor in this crucial market with lots of growth potential.
The early departure of Michael Dick raises eyebrows within the industry, just like the exit of Werner Frowein, 64, from his position as head of the Quattro GmbH high-performance division. Frowein shaped the current R8 and the RS lineup, and he was the driving force behind the highly successful R8 racing program. He could have continued, but last month he handed his responsibilities to Franciscus van Meel, 45, who previously headed Audi’s e-mobility program.
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The management reshuffle needs to be seen in the context of important personnel decisions expected over the next few years. There is no designated successor yet for VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, 65, and the group’s R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg, 62. Dürheimer and de Meo, as potential candidates, need to prove themselves—count in Porsche’s Matthias Müller and Wolfgang Hatz as well. And there is another aspect: The old rivalry between VW and Audi regarding the premium stepchild’s level of independence and autonomy. Right now, the scales have tipped towards Wolfsburg.
