Martin Winterkorn

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Martin Winterkorn (March 2015)

Martin Winterkorn (born May 24, 1947 in Leonberg ) is a former German manager . From January 1, 2007 to September 23, 2015, he was Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and from November 25, 2009 to October 31, 2015, Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche Automobil Holding SE . He was also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Audi AG from January 1, 2007 to November 11, 2015 .

Live and act

education

In 1966, Martin Winterkorn began studying metal science and metal physics at the University of Stuttgart . From 1973 to 1977 he was a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research . In 1977 he was promoted to Dr. rer. nat. PhD .

Career

Audi

After working in the research department at Robert Bosch GmbH , he moved to Audi in 1981 as assistant to the Board of Management for Quality Assurance . At the beginning of 1988 he became head of "Central Quality Assurance " and two years later head of Audi quality assurance.

On March 1, 2002, Winterkorn became CEO of Audi AG. He headed the Audi brand group , which was newly formed on January 1, 2002 , and which included Audi as well as the Seat and Lamborghini brands . Since January 16, 2003, he has also headed the “Technical Development” division. In his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, Winterkorn has sat on the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG since then. On December 6, 2006, at the fourth Annual General Meeting 2006, Rupert Stadler , former member of the Board of Management of the Finance and Organization division , was declared to be Winterkorn's successor as member of the Board of Management of Audi AG.

Volkswagen

In 1993 Winterkorn moved to Volkswagen as head of "Group Quality Assurance" . In March 1994 he was appointed general representative of Volkswagen AG, and in June 1995 he was also appointed responsible for product management for the Volkswagen Group. In January 1996, Winterkorn became Board Member for "Technical Development" at the Volkswagen brand. From July 2000 he was a member of the VW Group Board of Management for the “Research and Development” division.

Following the approval of the Supervisory Board on November 17, 2006, he succeeded Group CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder as CEO of Volkswagen AG on January 1, 2007 . Here he took a full staff of employees, including u. a. the chief designer Walter Maria de Silva and the then head of development Ulrich Hackenberg . As a direct superior, he continued to manage the sales and research and development divisions at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg .

As CEO of Volkswagen, Winterkorn earned 17.456 million euros in the 2011 financial year - more than any other CEO of a DAX company before him. As a result, a sharp discussion broke out about excessive manager remuneration and its incompatibility in a social market economy , combined with the demand that the rules for structuring the remuneration of the executive board be tightened even further after the law on the appropriateness of executive remuneration was unable to prevent excessive salary. Winterkorn's pension entitlement is 1.33 million euros per year, for which VW has set aside 28.6 million.

In April 2015, the then chairman of the VW supervisory board, Ferdinand Piëch, surprisingly criticized him for the public with the statement “I'm at a distance from Winterkorn” because of the difficulties on the US market and the delay in entering the market with cheap vehicles.

For his 400 square meter VW villa in Groß Schwülper , Winterkorn paid the VW real estate company only five euros rent per square meter. The real estate company justified the low rent compared to market prices with the fact that Winterkorn only used half of the area privately. The other rooms of the villa would have been available for entertaining guests of the company. The garden of the villa has been rebuilt and a pond for koi has been created. The heating system in the pond for Winterkorns Kois, paid for by Volkswagen Immobilien GmbH, cost 60,000 euros.

On September 23, 2015, Winterkorn resigned as head of the VW Group due to the VW emissions scandal , after US authorities uncovered manipulation of diesel cars. On October 17, 2015, he also resigned from the chairmanship of the executive board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE and on November 11, 2015 from the chairmanship of the supervisory board of Audi AG.

Mandates

After the merger of the Volkswagen and Porsche groups on August 13, 2009, Winterkorn was also appointed CEO of Porsche Automobil Holding . He was a member of the supervisory board of FC Bayern München AG . Winterkorn also had a seat on the Supervisory Board of Infineon Technologies AG.

further activities

In 2003 Winterkorn became honorary professor at the Technical and Economic University of Budapest . On August 1, 2004, he was appointed honorary professor at the Technical University of Dresden for the field of lightweight materials in vehicle construction . He was also a member of the TU Dresden from 2002 to 2015, first of the Board of Trustees and then of the University Council. Winterkorn was also a member of the University Council of the TU Braunschweig from 2007 to 2015 and is a member of the Atlantik-Brücke e. V. , an association to promote German-American understanding.

Private

Winterkorn has a son from his first and a son from his second marriage. In August 2015, he and his second wife Anita founded two companies in Munich, OGH Immo GmbH and M + A OGH Immo GmbH & Co. KG. The company's goal is the "exploitation of own real estate". His wife is the sole managing director and the only liable partner. When the company was founded, Winterkorn transferred parts of his assets to his wife shortly before the VW emissions scandal became known.

Criminal proceedings in the wake of the VW emissions scandal

The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig announced on January 27, 2017 that it was investigating Winterkorn in the VW exhaust gas scandal, in addition to investigations on suspicion of criminal advertising in accordance with Section 16 of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), and on initial suspicion of fraud .

On May 3, 2018, a Federal Grand Jury in Detroit, USA, announced that it had brought charges against Winterkorn on March 14, 2018. He is charged with three counts of fraud and conspiracy against the Clean Air Act . An international arrest warrant was also issued against him.

In April 2019, the Braunschweig public prosecutor brought charges, including serious fraud.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Martin Winterkorn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ VW emissions affair: Winterkorn gives up chairmanship of the Porsche Holding . 17th October 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.porsche-se.com/pho/de/press/news/?pool=pho&id=2015-10-17
  3. ↑ Company .
  4. ↑ Manfred Bergmann: The perfectionist knows every screw: Audi boss Martin Winterkorn is supposed to get the Volkswagen Group back on track ( Memento from April 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Main-Echo, November 8, 2006, accessed on October 28, 2009
  5. ↑ Top managers lose their friends, VW boss Martin Winterkorn receives 17 million euros in salary: scandal! Don't call the left. But Germany's entrepreneurs , FAZ March 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ Paying top managers under criticism , heise online March 19, 2012.
  7. ↑ How much money does Martin Winterkorn get? FAZ September 28, 2015
  8. ↑ Dietmar Hawranek: "I'm at a distance from Winterkorn". In: Der Spiegel . April 10, 2015, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Gerhard Schröder stands up for Ferdinand Piëch , Handelsblatt from April 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ VW is said to have paid Winterkorn 60,000 euros for heating for a fish pond, FAZ of January 13, 2017, accessed on February 18, 2017
  11. ↑ Winterkorn had Koi carp pond heated at VW's expense Der Spiegel from January 13, 2017, accessed on February 18, 2017
  12. ↑ a b emissions affair: VW boss Winterkorn resigns. September 23, 2015, Spiegel Online
  13. ↑ In the wording: This is Martin Winterkorn's declaration of resignation. Focus, September 23, 2015, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Analysis: What Winterkorn really says - and what doesn't. Manager Magazin Online, September 23, 2015, accessed June 9, 2016 .
  15. ^ Club .
  16. ↑ Ms. Winterkorn, the Queen of Wolfsburg stern.de from September 29, 2015, accessed on September 23, 2017
  17. ↑ Martin Winterkorn: Real estate business in the middle of the emissions scandal. In: The world . Retrieved January 15, 2017 .
  18. ↑ The number of accused is increasing. In: Press release from the Braunschweig public prosecutor from January 27, 2017. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017 ; accessed on January 27, 2017 .
  19. ↑ US indictment alleges top VW exec knew of emissions cheating , The Washington Post, May 3, 2018
  20. ↑ Indictment (PDF)
  21. ↑ Looking for charges in the USA with Winterkorn with an arrest warrant , tagesschau, May 5, 2018
  22. ↑ Frank Dohmen, Simon Hage, Dietmar Hawranek, Martin Hesse, Gerald Traufetter: Crash of the car bosses . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 2019, pp. 60–64 ( online - April 20, 2019 ).
  23. ↑ tagesschau.de: Ex-VW boss Winterkorn also indicted in Germany .
  24. ↑ Stefan Winter: Garbsen Circle of Friends honors Winterkorn. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of October 28, 2009, p. 11
  25. ↑ Honorary doctorate for VW CEO :: NewFleet. Retrieved September 23, 2017 .
  26. ↑ The engineer in the entrepreneur. Retrieved September 23, 2017 .
  27. ↑ DIE WELT: Dresden Opera Ball medal for VW boss Winterkorn . In: THE WORLD . January 19, 2013 ( welt.de [accessed September 23, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Winterkorn, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Leonberg