Volkswagen Group Names Porsche CEO Oliver Blume As New Boss

Volkswagen Group is making changes to its management structure. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will add to his daily duties by taking over as Chairman of the Board of Management for the group. He assumes the role on September 1, and he’s expected to remain as Porsche’s CEO “in the long term,” possibly staying in that position following a potential initial public offering for the brand.

Blume said he’s excited to lead both Porsche and Volkswagen Group, adding that he will focus on “the customers, brands, and products” as the CEO of the pair. VW Group announced earlier this year that it had established a framework for a potential initial public offering for the German luxury automaker. Blume iterated that Porsche is “on a successful footing technologically, financially, and culturally,” and the company sees itself as a leader of “sustainable mobility.”

Blume joined VW Group in 1994, holding various management positions at Audi, Seat, Volkswagen, and Porsche during his tenure. Before he joined Porsche’s Board of Management in 2015, Blume was responsible for Production and Logistics at Porsche. He has been part of VW Group’s board since 2018.

Blume will replace Herbert Diess, who arrived at Volkswagen in July 2015. Volkswagen Group’s Supervisory Board appointed him a member of the Board of Management and Chairman of the Board of Management for Volkswagen Passenger Cars. He began his automotive career in the late 1980s at Bosch before joining BMW, a company he worked at until he arrived at VW.

Diess arrived just months before the Dieselgate scandal broke, which set the stage for his tenure at the company. In September 2015, Volkswagen was found to have installed software that allowed its vehicles to pass regulatory emissions testing unfairly. The automaker faced scrutiny and fines from governments around the world for the scandal, which affected 11 million vehicles.

He became the chairman of VW Group in 2018 and helped the company navigate the fallout from the Dieselgate scandal. Diess also set the automaker on a course toward producing electric vehicles, a goal that Blume is now in control of achieving.