Wednesday, Volkswagon announced that Scott Keogh, CEO of Audi, will be taking up the reigns of their American operations on the first of November. The 49-year-old native of Old Brookville, New York has been with Audi since 2006 when he joined as the chief marketing officer. Later, in 2012 he was appointed president at the company. Previously, Keogh worked at Mercedes-Benz USA for twelve years. He is known as an innovator who doubled sales for Audi from 2010 to 2015 while achieving record dealer and customer satisfaction.
Keogh’s appointment as CEO of Volkswagon has him replacing Hinrich J. Woebcken, 58. Woebcken is an industrial engineer by training, and before being brought on as nascent North American VW branch CEO in 2016, he served as BMW’s senior president. The company credits him as having been instrumental in their slow recovery from the emissions scandal that hit the brand hard three years ago. “Hinrich J. Woebcken has brought the Volkswagen brand back on track for success in the US and the North American Region. Considering the challenging conditions these achievements deserve my dedicated recognition,” said Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG in a company press release.
Now, the company is looking towards Keogh to “build upon the momentum and implement the next stage in the growth strategy as we continue to develop Volkswagen into a more relevant player in North America.“ To that end, he will be mentored by Woebken, who will stay in touch as senior executive strategy adviser.
Stepping in at Audi on December 1st is Mark Del Rosso, 54. He had been executive vice president, COO of Audi of America since 2008, and last year was appointed president and CEO of Bentley Motors, Inc., Americas. Del Rosso has experience in marketing and sales and has also worked for Toyota and Lexus in the past. As yet, there is no word on his successor.
This appointment marks yet another step Volkswagon is taking to recover from the aforementioned scandal where it was discovered in 2015 that the company had used software to beat emissions tests. The program would regulate emissions only during testing so that cars would appear to be in compliance with regulatory standards. Volkswagon is currently in the process of buying back roughly 500,000 vehicles whose emissions are too high, a process that will continue through 2019.
