German daily Handelsblatt reported today, July 24 that Volkswagen has appointed Markus Duesmann as the new CEO of its sister company Audi.
Duesmann was the purchasing director for BMW since October 2016, and sources close to Volkswagen say that Audi wants him to start in the office as soon as possible. According to the German daily, he cannot take the post until at least 6 months from now. The reason cited behind this postponement is the competition clause in his contract.
BMW said yesterday that Duesmann will be leaving the company for personal reasons. He had been responsible for the purchasing and supplier network of the company for almost 2 years now.
As for Audi, its previous CEO Rupert Stadler was suspended in June following his arrest. He was alleged to have played a part in a broad probe on emissions cheating. For the time being, it is Abraham Schot looking after the vacant post, who is sales executive for Audi.
Before BMW, Duesmann worked for Mercedes-Benz in its Formula 1 team Stuttgarter and in its development of production engines.
Audi does not see Bram Schot as a permanent solution for filling the CEO shoes, which explains the company’s rush with the intention of Duesmann taking office ASAP. But the industry-standard clause of the German automakers prevents him from working for Volkswagen right away, as it is a direct competitor to BMW. Audi will have to go through the six-month period of waiting before things fall into pieces for them.
The appointment news comes one day after Audi announcing the unveiling of its brand new Q3 SUV that’s set to launch in India tomorrow, July 25. It has already been previewed through a short teaser video by the company and will rival the cars like BMW X1 and Volvo XC40.
