VW Group promotes Audi, Porsche execs to top roles

Volkswagen Group has appointed new bosses for the automaker’s quality and design divisions to speed up decision-making and improve coordination between the VW, Audi and Porsche brands.

Effective Jan. 1, Michael Neumayer will be in charge of VW Group’s quality management division while retaining his position as Audi’s head of quality. He will replace Frank Welsch, as VW Group’s quality chief. Welsch is retiring after nearly 30 years of service with VW.

Also on Jan. 1, Michael Mauer will become VW Group design chief, while also retaining the same role at Porsche. He will replace Klaus Zyciora who is leaving the automaker.

The latest management shuffle follows a leadership restructuring announced by new VW Group CEO Oliver Blume in September.

It means all key functions have now been assigned to the group’s leading brands, VW said in a statement on Wednesday.

• VW brand oversees group production and procurement
• Audi is in charge of group sales and quality
• Porsche will lead design and development

The new structure will lead to clearer priority setting and faster implementation amid the sweeping changes being experienced by the industry, VW said.

Managing the key functions of quality and design via the Audi and Porsche brands also will allow VW Group to intensify its customer focus, Blume said in the statement.

Zyciora, whose family name previously was Bischoff, is leaving the company to pursue tasks outside the group, VW said.

Zyciora joined VW in 1989 and was named group design head in 2020. He oversaw design for the sixth to eighth generations of the Golf compact car, and the design of VW brand’s ID family of full-electric cars.

Welsch became VW Group quality chief in 2021. During his VW career of nearly 30 years, he was in charge of technical development at the VW brand, SAIC VW in China and Skoda in the Czech Republic.

Neumayer has worked for VW Group since 1986 and has held technical development leadership roles at Audi and Porsche.