Volkswagen North America boss Browning steps down
Thu, 12 Dec 2013
In a rather sudden move, Volkswagen has announced that, effective immediately, Michael Horn is replacing Jonathan Browning (shown above) as CEO of VW of America. Horn has been with VW since 1990, taking on various roles that include, most recently, the head of VW Aftersales worldwide.
As for Browning, VW says that his departure is due to personal reasons. Browning replaced Stefan Jacoby as VWoA CEO in October 2010, but Automotive News hints that VW's "disappointing US sales," may have been a factor in the executive shakeup, as VW was not on trend to reach its aggressive goal of selling 800,000 units in the US annually by 2018. Scroll down for VW's official announcement (translated from German) as well as some other resulting personnel changes.
Wolfsburg, 12 December 2013
Personnel changes in sales and after sales
The Volkswagen Group occupies both after sales and marketing in areas 1 January 2014 several new self-service capabilities.
Michael Horn (51) is President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. Horn is in business administration and in 1990 joined to Volkswagen, worked on the strategy of the Group and brand, took over in 1997 the distribution of North-West Europe and in 2001 the sales and marketing for full-size cars of the Volkswagen brand. In 2004, he joined the management of Sales Europe. In 2009 he became head of Volkswagen After Sales worldwide. Horn follows in his new role, Jonathan Browning (54), who is leaving for personal reasons from the group and returned to Britain.
Axel Schulte-Huermann (52) is the new Head of Aftersales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, succeeding Michael Horn function. The engineering graduate joined the Volkswagen Group in 1987 in a. After various responsible positions in logistics, he was appointed Head of Sales appointed 2001 Original parts of the ŠKODA brand. In 2004 he took on the task of the manager at Volkswagen Original parts logistics. Since 2012 he is Head of Supply Chain at Genuine Parts and Service the Volkswagen Group.
Terence Johnsson (52), who now heads at Audi sales overseas. His professional career began in 1984, the economist at General Motors. After various responsible positions at GM Asia Pacific Johnsson was appointed President and Managing Director of GM Middle East Operations 2004. Since 2008, he was vice president of sales, service and marketing at GM in China. 2011 Johnsson joined the Volkswagen Group a. He first took over the management of the sales of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in North and South America, and from August 2013 for North America.
Ludger Fretzen (48) becomes the new head of sales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand for North America and follows in this function Terence Johnsson. Fretzen's degree in business administration in 1991 and came to the Volkswagen Group. He was sales manager of Volkswagen cars in Scandinavia in 1993 and in 1996 took over a task in the sales management of the Group. 1998, the responsibility for product strategy, he was assigned in marketing. As of 2000 Fretzen was responsible for worldwide product marketing of Volkswagen cars. In 2010 he was appointed Managing Director of Volkswagen Audi España SA.
By Jeffrey N. Ross