Those who have been paying attention may have taken notice of previous reports indicating that Opel would find its new chairman in former Volkswagen executive Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, and would officially announce his appointment on January 31. Well, today’s the day.
Effective March 1, Neumann will officially begin his tenure as Chairman of the Adam Opel AG Management Board, while being appointed GM Europe President as well as GM Vice President. Previously, the 51-year-old was CEO and vice president of Volkswagen Group China, where he worked out of Beijing from September 2010 to August 2012.
Neumann admits that the new position will be a challenge, considering Opel’s current struggles, but is confident that he and the rest of the Opel Management Board will be able to persevere enough to make a turnaround.
Comments
Interesting person, this Mr. Neumann. He holds a PhD in eletrical engineering and worked in the field of car electronics at Fraunhofer Institut (an independent research organisation with institutions specialising in a variety of fields, e.g. the development of the MP3 compression), Motorola, Volkswagen and in the executive board of Continental, bevor he took the assignment as China boss at VW, from where he moved on to GM/Opel.