Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess steps down, Porsche chief Oliver Blume replaces him
Image courtesy:Herbert_Diess/Twitter
On Friday, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess is stepping down as the head of the world’s second-largest automaker and Porsche chief Oliver Blume will be taking his place.
According to The Verge, Blume will replace Diess in his role as chairman of the board of management on September 1st, the company announced. In a statement, Hans Dieter Pötsch, who chairs the company’s governing supervisory board, thanked Diess for his service and for his “key role in advancing the transformation of the company.”
The company was in the middle of raising more funds through an initial public offering of Porsche to help fuel its push into electric vehicles and software services.
In an interview with The Verge’s editor-in-chief Nilay Patel earlier this year on the Decoder podcast, Diess has spoken about VW’s unique governing structure and how that makes his work different from most automotive CEOs.
“It is complex, and you need more alignment and a lot of discussion. It doesn’t allow for random decisions because you have to defend your case as a shared interest in the future of the company,” he said as per The Verge.
But as investors continued to raise concerns about VW’s direction, it was clear that Diess’ position at the head of the company was flimsy.
“He was hired away from BMW in 2015 with the mission to help regain trust from consumers in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal, in which VW was caught installing cheat devices in millions of vehicles,” a source as per The Verge.
