“The new company plays a key role in the implementation of our electrification strategy for the Chinese market. Today, through making appointments to the leading management functions, we are taking a further important step,” commented Markus Duesmann, CEO of AUDI AG and responsible for business in China. “With this team we are extremely well prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the Chinese market, and are looking to the future with optimism.”
The CEO of the new company will be Helmut Stettner, who will take over this role from 1 May 2021, following five years as Plant Manager at the Audi site in Neckarsulm. Stettner already took on responsibility for establishing the new company in China on an acting basis in August 2020 and managed this project with Audi’s Chinese partner FAW in addition to his duties in Neckarsulm. Stettner has extensive experience in China and is returning to a place of work that is already familiar to him: from 2011 to 2015 he was Site and Production Manager at the joint venture FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun.
Further positions on the Board of Management are taken by two Audi and two FAW managers.
Hendrik Adrian Wanger, at present Vice President for Finance and IT at Audi México, will move from Central America to China to take on the position of Vice President for Finance and Commercials. His international career has included, amongst other tasks, periods at Audi Volkswagen Middle East in the United Arab Emirates and at Seat in Spain.
Vice President for Procurement and IT will be Thomas Niewelt, currently Head of Procurement for Raw Materials / Exhaust Systems at AUDI AG in Ingolstadt. From 2004 to 2007 Thomas Niewelt operated in procurement for the Volkswagen Group in China as project manager for the localization of an engine project in Dalian. From 2013 to 2019 he was responsible for the procurement of e-motors for hybrid and battery electric vehicles.
Yu Qiutao will be responsible as Vice President for Production at the new site. Yu Qiutao has spent his entire professional career at FAW-Volkswagen and has many years’ experience in various management positions at the successful German-Chinese joint venture.
Gao Kun, who has worked in a number of leading roles in the field of human resources at FAW, will take the position of Vice President for Human Resources and Organization.
The new cooperative enterprise, in which Audi has a majority holding, is currently being established. From 2024 onwards, several fully electric Audi models will be manufactured for the Chinese market based on the PPE platform.
